Police find placards being misused

By Abbigail Overfelt
Staff Writer

University Police have found that many people are misusing handicapped placards in order to obtain desirable parking spaces on campus.
“Some students are using the placards of friends or relatives who actually have disabilities,” Chief McDuffie Cummings said.
University Police are beginning to check these placards by a series of methods.
According to Cummings, each handicapped placard is assigned to a particular license plate number, which in turn corresponds with the parking permit issued by the University.
Police will first run the placard against the license plate to determine if the placard corresponds to the vehicle. This will also tell them who owns the vehicle, who the placard was issued to and who is the next of kin. Then, they will check the parking permit to see who is actually operating the vehicle on campus.
If the handicapped placard, license plate and parking permit do not correspond, the permit holder will be issued a campus citation and a $60 fine.