No less than 271 parking permits for the entire city were given to policemen in the capital. Officials promise this number will soon to be reduced drastically in response to growing complaints from residents.

Residents of the center of the city are crying due to the lack of parking place, apparently leading to the decision to take back some of the permits given to police, Yediot Jerusalem reports.

Residents of many areas of the capital receive a colored parking sticker that one affixes on one’s windshield. The colored sticker also displays a number, which corresponds to this area. For example, the area near Machane Yehuda is designated as “area 6” and the parking stickers displaying the “6” are green. There are stickers for the Geula, Rechavia, and Shaare Chessed as well along with many other areas.

Residents have begun seeing a new sticker in town, yellow, which they have learned is a free pass to park in any and all areas including restricted residents’ only parking or any blue and white pay for parking area as part of a deal made between the city and police. This was never made known to the public but the unrelenting complaints from residents who cannot find parking have led to the city reconsidering the deal.

The city is being pressured to take back the yellow stickers and only give them to the few members of the force who need them for operational and not private purposes.

Responding to the report, the city explains the list of recipients for the yellow stickers was submitted by police. They have since held a meeting with police officials, with the latter being told they must downsize the list to a maximum of 100 and they are to be used only for operational purposes to assist police.

YWN-ISRAEL adds that with the implementation of the new system, one will not be able to know which vehicles have a yellow sticker. Residents have been informed this week that they must now fill out their application for the new parking stickers for 2017-2018 online. Once approved, the license number of their vehicle will be entered into the city’s parking database.

Parking enforcement agents all carry computers and a scan of a license number will tell them immediately if a vehicle is parked legally without the need to display a sticker. Signs will remain in those areas informing motorists that parking is restricted to residents with a specific permit for that zone. However, one will not be able to determine if any of the cars are parked in an area as residents of that area of alternatively, one of the lucky recipients of a yellow sticker.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)