Oswego State University Police have a new tool to enforce campus parking regulations and it could save students money.

Since Oct. 1, 2019, any vehicle found “parked in spaces marked Reserved and/or Handicapped,” may have a parking boot applied to one of its wheels by University Police, said Oswego Today. Parking boots may also be applied to, “vehicles where the driver has acquired 10 or more violations in a given year. The boot will remain on the offending vehicle until the owner pays their fines, at which time the University Police will remove the parking boot.” The other option would be for the University Police to have the violating vehicle towed away.

The University Police believe parking boots will make students’ lives easier. UP Assistant Chief Kevin Velzy said, that when it comes to parking boots, “There are actually benefits to the parking violator.” Velzy said parking violators who are booted, “will not have to find some way to retrieve their vehicle from a tow company. Instead simply call University Police.” Velzy said after a student pays their parking ticket online the University Police will come and remove the parking boot from their vehicle. Velzy said parking violators will save money because they, “will not have to pay the hefty charges associated with towing.”

Velzy sees the parking boots as “another tool that may be used in lieu of towing.”  

According to the University Police, areas that are “towable” include fire lanes, handicapped spots and the reserved spaces located in front of residence halls, dining facilities and administration buildings.

“It is our hope that this, along with our present policies, will act as a deterrent to vehicles being parked in those sensitive areas,” Velzy said.

Oswego senior Zakary Haines said, University Police “got it right on this one.” 

Haines felt parking boots were cheaper than having to pay for the fees associated with having a vehicle towed. He hopes the new parking regulations will help to deter commuting students from illegally using the student parking behind the Mackin Complex. 

“If you get 10 tickets and don’t pay, you probably don’t deserve to have a car on campus,” Haines said.

Other students are undecided on the new parking enforcement policy.

“I’m on the fence about the boot,” Cory Jackson, an Oswego sophomore, said.

Jackson said he believes the University Police should try to stop people from parking in the reserved parking areas, but he called the use of a boot “excessive.” 

“Parking in a reserved spot should be punished, but not to the extent of a boot,” Jackson said.

Jackson did believe parking boots were an appropriate punishment for drivers with at least 10 unpaid fines.

As of Oct. 8, the University Police have yet to boot an offending vehicle. 

“We do not anticipate [parking boots] being used to any great extent, but again it is another option,” Velzy said.

University Police feel the few “habitual offenders,” who, “accumulate tickets regardless of penalties,” may have finally met their match thanks to the new regulation.

More information about Oswego State’s parking rules and regulation can be found on the parking regulations page of the Oswego State website.

University Police tickets can be paid 24 hours a day through the online parking portal located on the “Parking at SUNY Oswego” page of the Oswego State website.

 Any tickets not paid by a student before the end of the semester will be sent to student accounts and added to the student’s bill.

Photo provided by Oswego State University Police