When a volunteer from the Accessibility Compliance Enforcement program sees someone park in a handicapped parking lot, they search the vehicle for a little blue placard with the wheelchair symbol on their rearview mirror or license plate. When a blue placard is not found, the volunteer writes a ticket and sticks it to the car window.
Phoenix Police Detective Walter Olsen leads the Accessibility Compliance Enforcement group of 35 volunteers and oversees the tickets issued while managing meetings and balancing his own career as a motorcycle officer. Olsen is proud of the work he has done with the group since it began in 2003. He hopes the group can continue their work even after he retires this following year.
Olsen, a 30-year police officer, received the 2014 Pride of Phoenix Award, which was renamed after him at the Disabilities Awareness Recognition Event on Oct. 20.
“I don’t feel worthy of such recognition because I am advocating for people who are stronger than I am and do more than I ever will do in my life,” Olsen said.
The 2010 Phoenix Census lists 30 percent of the Phoenix population with a disability, but just 7 to 15 percent have an impairment that qualifies them for disability parking, Olsen said.
In May 2000, the police department, the city council and the Mayor’s Commission on Disabilities Issues decided to create the volunteer program.
The fine for a Accessibility Compliance Enforcement ticket is $288.
People who want to join the Accessibility Compliance Enforcement program apply at the police department where they undergo a thorough background check, including a polygraph exam. If a citizen passes necessary checks, they become Citizens Offering Police Support after two to three months.
Citizens who are not volunteers with the group are still able to help the group track down unwarranted users of handicapped parking.
Save Our Space is an educational sidebar of the Accessibility Compliance Enforcement program that allows average citizens to call a hotline and report a disability parking violation on private property. After a description of the car, license plate number and location of the car is given, an educational warning letter is sent letting them know they mistreated the disability spot.
People in the community need to know parking in the disability spaces are not a privilege, but a necessity, Olsen said. He said it’s a shame they have to write tickets in the first place, but he believes there is a number of people in the community who are too selfish.
The volunteer group was writing about 3,000 tickets concerning disability parking violations per year in 2004. This year, they are writing about 1,200 to 1,500 tickets.
“Why not focus some resources on making sure that, at the very least, those members of the community can go about and do their business, park and go into a store and do all the things that you and I take for granted?” Olsen said.
Joanne Woodfill, 77, is an Accessibility Compliance Enforcement program volunteer who volunteers with the group for the past 13 years. Her mother, who needed the handicapped parking spots for her wheelchair, served as her inspiration for joining the cause. She can volunteer any time of day, and she can go any where in Phoenix, but she often watches north Phoenix.
“It’s something that has to be done. I can’t tell you that I enjoy doing it, but it’s something that has to be done,” Woodfill said.
Jim Winston, 64, is a veteran and retired school teacher who volunteers with the Accessibility Compliance Enforcement program for the last 15 years. By joining the program, Winston, who uses a wheelchair, saw how people are paying more attention more now than when they started. Days when he does not issue citations are just as valuable as when he writes two or three, he said.
“I wish I could walk that far myself, and why somebody would park up that close just so they didn’t have to walk when they could … It’s just not right,” he said.
In his years of police service, Olsen recognized his power to impact the community in a positive way.
“Even though when, as a police officer, you only interface with people for a short amount of time, you hopefully can change, at least for that period of time, the outcome of something,” Olsen said. “You can make it better.
Contact the reporter at Samantha.Incorvaia@asu.edu
