Love means never having to pay for parking.

See if you can tell how many ways this grey Honda Accord — snapped in the Bronx by longtime Streetsblog contributor and anonymous watchdog @placardabuse — is the new gold medalist for placard perniciousness:

Count along with us:

1. Illegal parking

The Accord’s driver parked directly beneath a red “NO STANDING Anytime” sign on Decatur Avenue and E. 201st Street in Bedford Park. This is illegal!

2. The badge

The driver displayed an unfolded pink leather (?) wallet containing what appeared to be a badge for a lieutenant in the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s uniformed services bureau. Beneath the badge itself, in embossed letters, the wallet read: “LIEUTENANT’S GIRLFRIEND.”

Even if the driver’s beau really does work in enforcement for the TLC, this thing is fugazi.

“There is nothing in this photograph that is either officially or unofficially issued by the TLC,” agency spokesman Jason Kersten told Streetsblog. “This appears to be someone forging official TLC insignia, and using that association to avoid an illegal parking fine.”

Streetsblog could not determine the origin of the fake badge, but leather badge holders — even ones for girlfriends! — are available from Mike’s Police Equipment. The one in the photo may have been made by an amateur pleathersmith — the “D” in “GIRLFRIEND” extends past the white stitching on the border.

3. The courtesy card

The clear plastic window opposite the fake metal badge contained a “courtesy card” issued by an obscure fraternal organization called the Retired Sergeants Association. The RSA says it maintains “a professional relationship with the Sergeants Benevolent Association” — one of the official NYPD labor unions — but isn’t formally affiliated with it.

Private organizations that serve members of the NYPD — such as unions, fraternities and other societies — have handed out unofficial courtesy cards to friends and family members for decades.

The only real function of courtesy cards is fraud. They exist to encourage law enforcement officers to go easy on cardholders who break the law. These cards play a special and historical role in corrupting traffic enforcement. You can find New York Times articles from nearly 100 years ago that explain how New Yorkers used unofficial courtesy cards to escape traffic fines.

It doesn’t matter if the girlfriend’s RSA courtesy card is real or fake because courtesy cards are not official documents to begin with.

The RSA’s website does have a page with instructions for obtaining a “retiree NYPD ID card” — but that actually pertains to the NYPD’s official policy, as required by state law, to give retired cops special ID cards. Official NYPD retiree cards feature the name, rank, and portrait of their owners and are printed in a vertical format. The card photographed by @placardabuse, by contrast, lacks any identifying information and is horizontal.

The RSA did not respond to Streetsblog’s request for comment. It seems clear that the RSA issues courtesy cards, and encourages members to distribute them to people they know. In fact the RSA began selling extra cards for a small fee just a few years ago.

“We have received a large request for additional RSA annual membership/courtesy cards,” RSA president Robert V. Cotumaccio wrote in the April 2023 edition of the fraternity’s official magazine, The Chevron. “We have never sold cards in the past, but this year, with our newly designed card, there has been a great demand for additional cards. We have decided to make available (4) RSA cards for a $5 donation, which will cover the cost of the cards and postage.”

4. The windows

The windows of the Accord appear to be tinted. This is illegal!

5. The plates

The license plate is from Connecticut. Cars parked on New York City streets with out-of-state plates are inherently suspicious due to the prevalence of registration and car insurance fraud in New York City. And…

6. The driving record

Despite being registered in Connecticut, the Accord has incurred $2,631.96 in city traffic fines since 2024 — $509.48 of which remains unpaid. The driving record includes six camera-issued speeding tickets and three bus-lane violations. Traffic cops have ticketed the car on four occasions for illegally blocking a fire hydrant.

So what does it all mean? Well, we already knew that uniformed personnel and civil servants continue to abuse parking placards in every corner of the city. But the idea that a placard holder might try to share their parking privileges with a romantic partner is a newer development.

But it turns out that this is not the first time someone has tried to escape parking tickets by claiming to date a law enforcement officer. Almost exactly eight years ago, @placardabuse spotted the driver of a Mercedes-Benz SUV displaying a courtesy card issued by the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association and tucked into a badge holder embroidered with the phrase “OFFICER’S GIRLFRIEND.”

And in October 2019, someone tried to illegally park a sedan while displaying another fake “OFFICER’S GIRLFRIEND” badge — along with a courtesy card issued by the Detectives Endowment Association. However, that car was eventually towed.

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