You'll see a beige minivan and a white Prius in the photo. Both are misusing placards and using "official vehicles" as take-home cars. Worst of all, both are parking in a crosswalk without fear of being ticketed or towed.

The Prius is from the NYC Dept. of Small Business Services. At least it's a Prius, and at least the placard matches the plate. The minivan, as I just noted in the earlier post, is from CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which ironically enough is supposed to educate people in the field of law enforcement.

I've been posting about this corner for nearly two years now.

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/15307
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12780
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734

The beige minivan represents a jackpot of chronic placard and official car abuse. Let's tick through the problems.

1) Parking in a crosswalk AND striped no-parking zone (for 12 hours a night).
2) Abuse of an "Official" Vehicle (as plated) for personal purposes - parking at home after business hours.
3) Abuse of placard to be used by someone engaged in "agency business."
4) Misuse of incorrect placard -- placard is for a different vehicle. The motorist decided to switch to the minivan this evening, but based on the given plate info is still using the placard for a black Impala shown in earlier posting (see links below).

Will NYPD ever enforce even the most obvious of these chronic violations? At a minimum, a car left overnight in a crosswalk should be towed, whether it has a placard or not.

I've been reporting on this for years now.

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12780
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734

Illegally parked on 65th Street @ 18th Avenue in Brooklyn, NY on 5/24/2011. They were parked for 20 minutes while making a run for coffee.

More than a year after I first started posting this placard-abusing John Jay College employee taking home an official vehicle and then using it to block a crosswalk for hours on end, things are actually getting worse. He or she has been joined by a second person doing the exact same thing. This second person is from the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

The southeast corner of E. 158th Street and Walton Avenue, which is striped for pedestrian use only, is pretty much taken over by City employees parking their government-issued cars overnight.

Previous updates in this series:
Oct. 20, 2009: First post on John Jay placard abuser
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734

March 28, 2010: Post notes that official vehicles are supposed to be used for "official duties"
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261

May 4, 2010: Twice the abuse: John Jay College driver temporarily shifts to a minivan, but keeps abusing the placard for the Impala.
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12780

I thought the Mayor was cracking down on this. When will this b.s. ever be enforced?

John Jay College exists to teach aspiring police officers and prosecutors how to enforce the law. Presumably there are a number of courses that emphasize why it is important for all members of society to uphold the law. Ironically, one member of the college community believes that the importance of upholding the law applies only to those who lack the privileged status of a government-issued parking permit on a government-issued car.

The agency business permit displayed on the dashboard of this minivan has the license plate of the black four-door Chevy Impala that is usually parked here.

(See previous posts:

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734 )

This minivan also has official plates, so my guess is the Impala is in the shop and its owner borrowed another John Jay car to drive home for the night. Because the thought of actually riding the D train, which goes right from John Jay College to this location, must be unbearable.

The agency business permit being abused in this case is supposed to be used for no more than three hours, and only for business purposes. Cars with official plates are supposed to be used by government officials "in the course of their official duties." But this car is usually parked all night and on weekends in a no-parking zone. I'll give its driver a small amount of credit for trying to avoid blocking the crosswalk as much as possible while still parking illegally.

So here we have what I suspect is a violation of the use of an official car, a placard use violation, and the wrong placard in the wrong car. Will any of this ever be enforced? Of course not. Therefore, DOT needs to raise the striped no-parking area into a sidewalk extension/bulb-out. The only way to truly prevent parking abuse is to make it physically impossible.

Note the Mercedes to the left that is also violating the no-parking zone. (This was during a Yankee game.) The driver was in the car at the time this photo was taken, so presumably he'd move if asked. Not that that makes it any better.

Since we last checked in ( http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734 ) on this apparent plate abuser / placard abuser from John Jay College, nothing has happened except he or she has updated his or her placard after the old one expired on Feb. 1, 2010.

PLACARD VIOLATION:

This is an Agency Business Parking Permit that is to be used for no more than 3-hours at a time while on official agency business. Yet, the car is parked overnight most nights and all day on weekends in a residential neighborhood 100 blocks north of the campus.

PLATE VIOLATION:

This person is using a car that has official plates. According to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles ( http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/mv653.pdf ): "A vehicle assigned Official plates must be owned or controlled by a political subdivision and operated by its employees, or specifically designated agents thereof, in the course of their official duties."

It seems unlikely that this car is being used for official duties, violating both the reason for having official plates and the Agency Business Parking Permit. However, there is the possibility that this is legit. Besides parked next to a number of apartment buildings, the car is also being parked across the street from the Bronx County Courthouse. Is there is some reason why a person from John Jay College would need to have a car parked across the street from the Bronx County Courthouse during nights and weekends? It is not inconceivable. If that is the case, I will stand corrected and withdraw this allegation of misuse of placard and plates. Only the UncivilServants FOIL request can help answer that question.

A FINAL NOTE OF IRONY:

John Jay College trains students to become law enforcement personnel. It is a little ironic that a member of that school is apparently failing to uphold the law in his or her own personal life. This pretty much speaks to the larger problem here, no?

I probably wouldn't care that much about this situation if the car wasn't always parked in the crosswalk.

The very next day he parked halfway in the crosswalk and left it there for 2 days!

This guy takes this truck home every night and parks it on the streets of Dyker Heights Brooklyn. Not only shouldn't he parking it on the street, but more than not it is parked illegally, like pictured here, about 4 feet from a fire hydrant. Other times it's parked in front of a church, a school, or in a no standing zone. But NEVER in front of HIS house. And why does he take it home? It is an educational vehicle, not something he would need to take to an emergency in the middle of the night.

Here we have a case where someone who is supposed to use a car for "agency business" for periods of no more than three hours actually takes the car home each night and parks it in a crosswalk. This placard is issued by John Jay College, which is located at Tenth Avenue and 58th Street in Midtown Manhattan. However, this vehicle is parked 100 blocks to the north during non-business hours.

I frequently see this car parked when I pass through there on my way to work between the hours of 6:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. It always looks like it has been there for hours.

This car is parked in a striped/painted bulb at the corner connecting two crosswalks to the sidewalk. No vehicles are allowed to park in this striped area. However, the placard-bearer evidently believes that his or her placard puts him or her above the rules.

In these photos, this vehicle is partially blocking one of the crosswalks. On some mornings, the blockage is more severe.

Parked illegally in the bike lane / (bike lane transfer through intersection)

Though it sounds bogus, this government organization actually exists. The illegitimacy of this placard, however, is obvious.

Van abusing parking permit again prevents the street cleaner from cleaning this area of the street. The driver continues to flaunt the law by parking overnight and well into morning. As you can see from today's picture, the driver parks directly under the 'no parking anytime' sign. How do we stop this blatant abuse of authority? This person lives there, and is not there on 'official business'.

Illegal parking in No Standing Zone, next to school, 2 malls and between 2 merging streets.

Blind spots by illegals contributed to woman's injuries when she was struck down by auto 12/24/06.

Way to go! NY's finest.

Once again, the black Cadillac belonging to a City Councilmember was illegally parked in a no parking zone on 31st Street near Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria, Queens, directly in front of Citibank. This seems to be an almost daily occurrence. The car was there for at least a half hour before 6 pm, when no parking rules no longer apply at this location.

These photos were taken on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 5:23 PM. A black Cadillac with City Council plates and a "City Hall Parking Permit" was parked immediately beneath a no parking sign valid on that day from 8 AM to 6 PM. This was immediately outside Citibank on the west side of 31st Street, just south of Ditmars Boulevard. The car remained parked in this space for at least 20 minutes. This is not the first time I have seen the same car illegally parked in the vicinity. Unfortunately the sign is not visible clearly in the cell phone picture that I took, but I do have a closeup of the sign available if needed.

The police precinct across the street always takes advantage of whatever space they can. If it's not their private cars in front of the fire hydrant, it's their three wheeled carts on the sidewalk.

This Honda parks under "No Parking Anytime" sign, male late teens to early 20's exits vehicle, then proceeds to Queens Center Annex Mall. No neighborhood alert was forthcoming that some dangerous toxic cloud was forming over the mall, so I infer that the driver was going to shop or eat. What other explanation is to be had for the emergency park at a school and in the middle of 2 high traffic roads merging? The valid license no did not match the license plate displayed on the vehicle and no date was visible on the placard.

Nothing stops the City of New York from it's daily operations--not even a holiday like Easter Sunday. This official vehicle was seen driving around Ridge Blvd and Third Avenue in Brooklyn on a Sunday until it found parking in a residential neighborhood where it remained the rest of the day.

This vehicle is allowed to park at a bus stop. The two cars behind get the 115.00 ticket but because this person has a court officer permit they don't get the ticket.