Police Commissioner James O'Neill is defending the NYPD after it put up "no parking" signs along 218th Street in Manhattan and towed residents' cars to secure parking spots for officers attending a department flag football game at a nearby field.

"Special events go on throughout the city," O'Neill said at a news conference Tuesday. "So this is something that the commissioner's football league has every year. There were signs put out five days in advance that said 'no parking' on Sunday."

Some residents complained they were caught off-guard. One resident told NY1 she had to pay to put her car in a garage, while off-duty members of the NYPD got preferential parking in a "no parking" zone the department created.

Photos from this past Sunday show cars with NYPD placards parked along four blocks of 218th Street from Broadway to Indian Road.

"It was not placard abuse," O'Neill said. "It was clearly marked 'no parking' on Sunday. It's a special event. This is where Columbia football plays. There are events like this all throughout the city."

The department said it relocated 30 cars by tow but none of them were ticketed.

The NYPD's flag football championship took place at a Columbia University field adjacent to 218th Street.

The university told NY1 that "no parking" signs are never put up when several thousand people attend the school's football games in the fall.

The police commissioner did say the local precinct in Inwood should work to improve communication about special events.

"What I would say to the precinct commander up in the 34th [Precinct] is to make sure that everybody in that community knows that there's a special event beyond just this sign," O'Neill said.

The "no parking" signs came less than two weeks after Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to crack down on so-called placard abuse, when government cars take advantage of parking rules. But when asked about this story, a spokeswoman for de Blasio said the office is "declining comment for the time being."