PROVIDENCE –– There’s just something about construction hardhats and handicapped-parking placards -- they don’t look right together.

That was plain to a sharp-eyed meter attendant, who noticed several men slapping handicapped placards in their windshields before donning hardhats for work at the Capital Center construction project downtown.

Dante E. Sciarra Jr., the 60-year-old nephew of organized crime figure Rudolph Sciarra, was the first laborer to get a summons from the police Wednesday when he was seen in his Jeep Cherokee with his fiancée’s handicapped placard hanging from the rear-view mirror.

Yesterday morning, Sgt. Paul Zienowicz and Patrolman Thomas Connetta gave out summonses to two other construction workers when they parked in metered spots along Park Row West, across from the Amtrak train station.

Keith Dumond, 38, of Warwick, had his mother’s placard, and Todd Medeiros, 25, of Fall River, was using one issued to his grandmother, even covering her photo on the placard, Zienowicz said.

All three men have summons for April 14 at the Traffic Tribunal, where they face a possible $500 fine. They probably won’t be alone. During this week’s crackdown near the construction site, the police took photos of four other vehicles with handicapped placards –– none of which match the drivers, Zienowicz said. One placard belongs to an East Greenwich man who died in 2004.

There are about 45,000 handicapped parking permits issued in Rhode Island, and the state Division of Motor Vehicles gets 1,000 requests a month, said administrator Sally Strachan. The placards allow a disabled person to use handicapped spaces or metered parking spaces for free, whether the person is the driver or the passenger, Zienowicz said.

Those with impaired mobility can apply for placards, with their doctor’s recommendation. Their application must be approved by the state Medical Review Board before a temporary, long-term or permanent placard is issued. The permits belong to the disabled person, not the vehicle.

The permanent placards don’t expire, so, the state checks on the holders every three years with letters requiring a notarized signature, said DMV assistant director John DiTommasso. But it’s impossible for the DMV to monitor how the placards are used, so it relies on the police, who confiscate ones being abused, said Strachan. The DMV can rescind the placards or issue fines against any holder who allows them to be used by someone else. Yesterday, Sciarra defended himself. “It was an accident,” he said over the phone.

His fiancée, who has a leg brace, had borrowed his Jeep to go to work on Monday and Tuesday, Sciarra said, and she left her placard in his Jeep. He said he didn’t notice it was still there when he drove to work on Wednesday. “When you get up at 5 in the morning, is your mind alert?” he asked.

Sciarra said he was eating lunch in his Jeep and listening to Buddy Cianci’s radio show when he saw the police walk by. He said he got out to put money in the parking meter when an officer startled him.

“The cop said, ‘Whose placard is that?’ ” Sciarra said. “I didn’t realize it was there.”

He said he told the officer he was getting ready to put money in the meter. The officer handed him a summons instead.

“What about all the things the police chief does?” Sciarra said. “Everything everyone else does doesn’t matter, when you get guys trying to make a living.”

Sciarra said he’ll fight the summons in court. The construction site doesn’t have free parking, Sciarra said. There are only a few free on-street spots, he said, and those fill up.

Now, he said, he’ll have to leave from his residence in Cranston at around 4 or 5 a.m. to find a free spot downtown to start work at 7.

In the meantime, Sciarra said, he’s working on an application for his own placard.

“I had my knee operated on,” he said, “and I can’t walk that good.”

amilkovi@projo.com