The California DMV is aggressively solving a cruel violation in parking: when someone exploits the primary blue placard that hangs above the dashboard to secure a better parking space. Since the department deployed a calculated response, the number of citations issued to drivers caught misusing the disabled person parking program is sharply declining across the state, signaling a drastic decrease in the amount of abuse. 

The DMV is not always celebrated for efficiency, but this time, the department might deserve credit for how it effectively handled the problem.

Once it began to focus on the issue in 2017, the DMV cracked down by using sting operations and redeveloping the process for renewing placards. Another effective enforcement tool: Citizens filing their own complaints against fraudulent drivers.

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According to data from the DMV reviewed by SFGATE, citations issued to drivers in the nine Bay Area counties caught abusing the placard are at the lowest they have been in a decade, with just eight violations in 2025. That number pales in comparison with the 303 citations issued in the Bay Area in 2017.

Placard abuse was at its peak across California that year; the DMV issued 2,715 tickets to offenders, its highest number in recent history.

A disabled person parking placard is displayed near Civic Center Plaza on May 17, 2013, in San Francisco.

There are several ways that someone who doesn’t qualify for the program can take advantage of it: purchasing a placard online without having a qualifying disability, using one that is not registered to them or just........

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