Holly MatkinSouthlake, TX – A police department in northern Texas has come up with a colorful way to remind citizens to park with care – especially near handicapped spaces.
The Southlake Department of Public Safety (SDPS) posted photos of their good-natured effort to abolish poorly-parked vehicles to Facebook on Monday.
SDPS created flyers that prominently displayed the agency’s patch in the center, along with a note they hope will help drivers whose parking skills impede on handicapped parking spaces.
“We notice you had a little trouble staying in the line when you parked next to a handicapped space,” the flyer read. “Maybe if you practice coloring our patch and staying in the lines here, it could help you avoid citations in the future?”
The department showed a photo of the flyer tucked under the windshield wiper of a vehicle that was parked with its driver’s side wheels encroaching into the handicapped space next to it.
“We try to avoid snark and sass [we REALLY do], but sometimes our fair citizens make it hard,” the department’s Facebook post read. “Please stay in the lines when you park ESPECIALLY if it’s next to a handicapped spot or you might be the recipient of one of our new fliers.”
SDPS indicated that the flyer is only a prototype, and that they are hoping they won’t have to actually start distributing them to thoughtless drivers.
“Be kind and drive kind and park kind!” the agency’s post read. “Let this graphic be an attention-grabbing example so we don’t have to end up going to FedEx Kinko’s and making like thousands of copies of these.”
Feedback on the department’s Facebook page was overwhelmingly positive.
“Love, love, Love!! Thank you,” one citizen wrote. “My son uses a wheelchair. I’d certainly hate for his 300lb power wheelchair to scrape alongside someone’s car parked illegally.”
“Love this! I drive a big SUV to accommodate my mom’s walker/wheelchair,” another woman explained. “It is so hard to find handicapped parking where I have enough room to open the passenger side door to get her out safely. Thank you for the funny and useful reminders.”
The father of a 19-year-old special needs student said that struggling to access handicapped spots where he can transfer his son in and out of a wheelchair has become a daily battle.
“We dream of the day when everyone thinks of others and not themselves!” he wrote
The police department’s post had been over 5,000 times by Tuesday evening.