Cars parked in the George Page Lot on Aug. 16. Previously, DPS identified cars using printed parking stickers and now will identify them by their license plates. Photo by Lucian Himes
Pepperdine is introducing virtual parking permits starting in August 2022.
As cars enter and park on campus, license plate recognition (LPR) cameras will scan license plates, according to the Pepperdine Department of Public Safety website. The Department of Public Safety will scan plates one car at a time using mobile, handheld or vehicle-mounted equipment. The system will detect unregistered vehicles or those parked in an unauthorized location.
DPS has been working on ways to mitigate parking traffic and brought their ideas to the Student Government Association a few weeks before DPS announced the switch to digital permits.
“I always try to park in the correct spot but I would be more inclined to park where I am supposed to be parking because I don’t want to get a ticket since scanning the license plate is pretty easy for DPS,” sophomore Marla Steel said.
The new system will help traffic, as well as the sustainability branch of SGA since parking permit stickers will not be printed anymore, said Michael Sugimoto, SGA vice president of administration.
This parking permit change may affect student’s parking habits as well. This can depend on many factors, including if they are an on or off-campus resident.
“I feel like this won’t change my parking habits because I commute to school every day, so as long as I can park in the same places I have before I think it will be the same,” senior commuter-student Presly Plowman said.
Plowman said she is unsure how students will get on campus without a DPS officer looking at the sticker the students and faculty usually have on their dashboards to allow students to get onto campus.
The open lane on the right of the entrance gate will still be there for students and faculty to drive through but this semester there will be a camera scanning the license plates as they come in Sugimoto said. The light will flash green if the person has a registered license plate, and if unregistered, the light will flash red indicating to the DPS officer they need to stop the car.
When it comes to visitor and electric vehicle parking protocols, there will be no changes, Director of Public Safety Dawn Emrich said. As the University gets more comfortable with the new system, DPS might implement new options for the visitor, like registering their plates. Electric vehicles can still park in their charging stations if they are registered as an EV.
There are mixed opinions on whether the new system will benefit the Pepperdine community. Plowman said she thinks it will be beneficial, but Steel disagreed.
“I don’t know if this would benefit the community because I honestly think that everyone should be able to park everywhere because we all go to Pepperdine,” Steel said.
There could be some difficulties that arise, Sugimoto said, but SGA and DPS are in close contact.
“We’re hoping that if any issue arises that we’ll be able just to quickly tell them, ‘Hey, this isn’t really working, or this is working — What can we do to fix this issue?’” Sugimoto said.
Students can register their vehicle here for the upcoming school year.
_________________________________
Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic
Email Anezka Liskova: anezka.liskova@pepperdine.edu
