The Newton City Council’s Finance Committee voted on Monday to spend $8,000 to help provide overtime pay to police officers to enforce handicapped parking laws during the upcoming holiday season.
The vote is held yearly to fund officers who sign up for shifts later in the day or during the weekends. Last year, the approved $7,500 was entirely spent, but the committee increased the funding to $8,000 to ensure they can cover four weeks of enforcement.
“They used up to $7,500 last year, so we moved it up to $8,000 to be sure that they could cover the four weeks of targeted enforcement,” said Jini Fairley, Newton’s Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator. “It’s the overtime that this amount of money pays to police officers who sign up to do a shift in the evening and on the weekends, to check out and go to places that many violations seem to happen during the holiday season.”
While this year requires a higher up-front cost, Daniel Devine, captain of the Newton Traffic Council, noted that last year’s enforcement generated more than twice its cost in revenue from tickets. He expects that ticket enforcement will similarly pay for itself this year.
“Last year, the funds that we gave us, I think roughly around $7,500, like Miss Fairley said—I think we brought in double that,” said Devine. “But generally, we write way more tickets than what the funds are for, and generally justify whatever costs that are here.”
According to Fairley, in recent years, there has been a pattern of people taking parking spots they believe they won’t be in for long, blocking access for people with disabilities who need these spaces.
“People just pull in, ‘I’ll only be a minute! I’m just going to pick something up,’ and they’re blocking an accessible space for someone who really needs it,” Fairley said.
Jack Lovett, the co-chair of the Commission on Disability, said part of this effort must include educating the public on social media about the importance of this law.
“We’re developing some educational graphics that can be shared on city social media,” Lovett said. “Our hope now is that we’ll have a twofer. We’ll have the police department giving out the tickets. We’ll also have the public being educated on why it’s so important to not block curb cuts and park in accessible spaces.”
A key target for this holiday season will be DoorDash and Uber Eats drivers, according to city officials. Devine recounted that last year these drivers often took up handicapped spots.
“These drivers just go in thinking they’ll be in five minutes, 10 minutes, and sure enough, they are probably five or 10 minutes,” Devine said. “But when one person says that times 20 a night, that spot is now taken up the whole night long and taken away from people who need it.”
As emphasized, the goal of this motion is to deter and prevent people from illegally using accessible parking spaces, leaving them for those for whom the spaces were intended.
“It’s truly unfortunate that a lot of people think, ‘Hey, I’m only in there for a few minutes, or no one needs a spot, since there’s four of them,’” Devine said. “But unfortunately, people do need it. It’s just sad, but we’re doing our best to enforce it.”
