Police launch app to expose fake and stolen disability parking cards

Danish police have received an app that can quickly verify disability parking permits and check whether they have been reported stolen, DR reports. The tool is intended to combat the increasing misuse and forgery of permits across the country.

The app retrieves data from Danske Handicaporganisationer’s database, allowing officers to determine within seconds whether a permit is valid or invalid, said Sune Fletcher Hjort, a police commissioner at the National Police.

Residents in Kastrup have for years complained that people use forged or misused permits to park for free. Danske Handicaporganisationer says it is also seeing more disability parking spaces occupied by people displaying questionable permits.

“We have, for example, a red one parked down there,” Birgit Jørgensen said, pointing along a densely parked residential street. She said the car had been parked there for almost three weeks with a disability permit displayed, while its occupants had arrived with suitcases and walked to the airport.

Danske Handicaporganisationer received a total of 762 enquiries about stolen permits in 2024 and 2025. In 2024, DR reported that the permits were being sold for up to 1,500 kroner in closed Facebook groups.

The organisation’s chairman, Thorkild Olesen, welcomed the app, saying access to disability parking is essential for most of its members. Without a space nearby, a person with a disability may be unable to collect a child from nursery, get to work or attend their studies, he said.

The app can show whether a permit is valid or has been reported stolen. It cannot currently show whether a genuine permit belonging to a friend or distant relative is being used by someone else, because permits are linked to individuals rather than vehicles.

Police expect to expand the app within the next few months so that it will also display the name and photograph of the permit holder.

The app was presented on Tuesday on Kastruplundgade in Kastrup by the chairman of Danske Handicaporganisationer, the mayor of Tårnby Municipality and Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard.

Residents say the problem is linked to the nearby Copenhagen Airport, which can be reached via a small footbridge at the end of the street. They say visitors park there to avoid paying for airport parking or taking the train.

In July, TV 2 Kosmopol reported that 23 of 60 cars parked on the street were displaying disability permits at one point. The permit allows drivers to avoid the usual parking charge of seven kroner per hour.

Misusing or forging a disability parking permit can result in charges of fraud, document forgery or misuse of a genuine document. It will typically be punished with a fine or a suspended prison sentence. In July, a 31-year-old man was sentenced to 10 days in suspended prison and community service for misusing a disability permit.