Police in wheelchairs

From an item in the Examiner (USA), monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.

'Half the members of the Californian Capitola police department are in wheelchairs, acting as parking enforcement officers'

Half the members of the Californian Capitola police department are in wheelchairs, acting as 'parking enforcement officers'. 'We've been hiring the handicapped for parking enforcement for ten years, and it's worked well for us,' says police captain Tom Hanna. 'They're very hard workers, and grateful for the opportunity to be of service and to earn an income. They wear police uniforms and work right alongside the rest of us.'

Danny, whose legs were paralysed four years ago when he fell from a bridge, says that 'placing tickets on cars is no problem. But if it's a big truck and I can't reach the windshield, I call one of the other parking enforcement officers who are mobile and they take care of it. We do get hassled occasionally, but we point out that if they disagree, they can take it to court. Once in a while we encounter someone who's had too much to drink and we have to call another officer, but that's a rarity.'

Captain Hanna says that his seaside city's policy of hiring the handicapped would work well in other communities. 'They've proven to us that they can get the job done.'

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