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A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin College. Published semi-monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: May 20. All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be e-mailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Nedal Ahmed, student correspondent; Heather Darrow, special contributor; Nick Young, photography and layout.
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Campus police work to curb parking violations
 In the rush of getting to class, many scour the parking lots at Collin College for the perfect spot, yet some, at a loss, head for the most convenient spots-- disabled parking spots. Disabled parking violations, according to the Collin College Police Department have consistently been a problem on all campuses.
"Because the college turns over its population every two years, our staff has to re-educate everyone again," Sgt. Michael Gromatzky, a master peace officer who has been with the Collin College department since the its inception in 2003 and a police officer for nearly 20 years, said.
An increase in violations does seem to exist. However, in one sector of the Collin College population -- disabled veterans. The law has changed and a disabled veteran license plate no longer guarantees the driver automatic handicapped parking permission. Disabled veterans now have to go through the standard procedure of getting a doctor's note and applying for a pass.
"They're veterans, so we try to respect what they have done for us and try to educate them about the change first," Sgt. Gromatzky said.
Reportedly, the biggest problem in the area of handicapped parking violation is the misuse of passes belonging to other family members or anyone other than the driver of the vehicle.
Enforcing traffic regulations on campus is one of many jobs for the Collin College police, and to do it successfully, time management is essential.
"We try to balance our time inside and outside the building," Sgt. Gromatzky said. "Any time an officer is outside, he has a laundry list of items he looks for, like stealing, injuries or damage to property. [handicapped parking violations] are definitely one thing he's looking at."
According to Sgt. Gromatzky, in addition to patrolling and inspecting for tags, the Collin College Police Department tries to combat use of another person's tag by observing the person in the car. However, he stresses that physical appearance of an injury is not sufficient to ticket since not all injuries are visible, but a lack of it gives officers a reasonable cause to ask questions.
ACCESS, the Collin College program for disabled students, said that it has been getting numerous complaints about these parking violations, but has no power over them except to pass the complaints on to the Collin College police.
Consequences for these violations can be a ticket of up to $500. Along with ticketing, the Collin College Police Department has the power to tow cars parked illegally, though they usually choose to place an immobilizer on one of the violating vehicle's wheels. But Sgt. Gromatzky, who says the force likes to take an educational approach to most of its problems, says there are other reasons besides tickets and fines to obey parking laws.
"Out of all our parking spaces, only a very small number are dedicated to handicapped or disabled parking," Sgt. Gromatzky said. "On a fall day, having to park way out and get to your class can be a huge inconvenience if you have a disability, so it's very important for our students to be considerate of others."
According to Sgt. Gromatzky, most violators will get one warning with the campus police before being issued a ticket, but this is also up to the officer's discretion. All warnings issued are recorded in a computer, which is checked by the officer upon pulling over a violator.
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