Southern University police officials say there have been numerous attempts to illegally counterfeit handicap parking tags on campus recently.
According to Terry Landry, interim chief-of-police for the university’s police department, two students were caught illegally rewriting the expiration dates on handicap tags so they could have access to better parking on campus.
Landry said the students used masking tape to cover up the accurate expiration dates on the tags so that they could write in false date to secure the restricted spaces.
“Those students that are committing these crimes and duplicating parking tags will have no warning and this law will be enforced,” Landry said. “There’s no warning on criminal law and we will not tolerate these actions.”
University students, faculty and staff all seem to share concerns about the recent parking tag fraud.
“The officials should examine student’s records properly before issuing a parking tag,” said E.C. Samkutty, a professor of English at Southern. “Officials should also investigate how these students are obtaining the handicap tag and faculty tag without a faculty or handicap ID.”
Kylon Wishom, a senior business management major from Lutcher, said he feels students that commit these crimes are wrong, however, to cut down on frauds and any other scandals, the price for parking tags and parking permits should be included in the tuition.
“This will cut down on parking tickets and long lines (during) registration,” Wishom said.
To prevent the frauds from reoccurring, SUPD will begin a new method with issuing special parking tags by issuing ID cards that will correspond with handicap parking tags, Landry said.
If the barcode, or numbers, on the card do not match the parking tag, violations will result in towing, impoundment, fines or charges filed.
Landry said the SU campus population can expect law adjustments within the coming months.
“This crime being committed is not only hurting the student in the long-run, but also the faculty and staff members that have designated parking spaces and can’t park because of students parking illegally,” said Samkutty.