Sometimes you’ll see construction workers place their brightly colored safety vests in the window of their car to prevent a parking ticket in an illegal parking spot or in a metered area.

Ticket writers will usually pass over these cars as a professional courtesy to other city workers.

But now CBS 2’s Dave Savini has caught some drivers near the Cook County Courthouse on Harrison, abusing this courtesy in a pretty egregious manner by using police uniforms, and other police items to keep from being ticketed.

In most cases these people are not cops at all.

Savini and crew caught a few of these police pretenders using this scheme to park without fear of a ticket in tow zones and in metered spots without having to pay for parking.

CBS 2 even interviewed a police officer on the beat who admitted he extended this professional courtesy by not writing tickets to cars with the police paraphernalia on the dashboard or hanging in the window.

Here’s CBS 2’s full report, “2 Investigators: Civilian Motorists Get A Free Ride, With Cop Shirts On The Dash.”

Share on Facebook