THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011
PAGE 7
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TRANSPORTATION
Parking employees often targets of students' abuse
Rob Buffmire, KU Parking and Transit safety and security officer, says that he sometimes bears the brunt of frustration from drivers who park illegally.
BY MATT GALLOWAY
mgalloway@kansan.com
Rob Buffmire routinely interacts with KU students. Unfortunately, most of the interactions include profanity-filled rants.
"You have to have thick skin with this job," said Buffmire, a Parking and Transit safety and security officer. "Most of the time when you've given people a chance to come to their senses they listen. They usually get the idea the first time."
Buffmire, a senior from Salt Lake City, is one of about 20 employees who issue campus parking tickets. As a safety and security officer, he said at times he is verbally abused and even physically provoked.
"Most of the time people start yelling, getting raised voices if they don't like what's going on," Buffmire said. "Once or twice people have gone to push me but there has never been actual contact."
Parking tickets and permits are the two main sources of revenue for Parking and Transit, which uses the funds to repair campus roads and maintain parking lots. The department has issued more than 50,000 tickets in each of the last three school years, including 54,835 for 2010-11.
Buffmire's altercations have been relatively tame compared to some of the incidents involving his peers. Some ticketed or towed drivers have threatened violence with baseball bats and camera tripods, said Dave Moore, Field Operations Manager for Parking and Transit.
"We do have confrontations," Moore said. "There will be some days when we don't have one. There will be others where we have quite a few. It depends."
There are five full-time officers and 17-to-20 student hourly employees who patrol for parking violations between the hours of 7 a.m. and midnight, according to Donna Hultine, director of Parking and Transit. Hultine has been with the department since 1981. She said incidents between safety and security workers and parking violators are on the decline but there are still people who will not accept responsibility.
"In my mind, and maybe I'm simplifying this too much, but I think it's pretty easy to be in compliance or not," Hultine said. "[Officers] are really just following the rules. They're not doing it with emotion. They're not judging people. You either have a permit or you don't."
The most heated altercations occur when a vehicle is towed, Moore said. If the situation escalates, officers are instructed to radio KUPD for assistance. Recently officers had to forcibly remove a student who refused to exit a vehicle about to be towed.
"We are in direct contact with the KUPD and we can get them there rather quickly, which we do not hesitate to do." Moore said. "I don't have tolerance for someone who would take it to that level."
said. " [Mangino] had a certain level of what he expected, I think."
Perhaps the most well-known altercation occurred in June 2007 when former football coach Mark Mangino tracked down and confronted a student employee. Mangino was ticketed because he wanted to park closer to an entrance than the location of his reserved stall, which was about 70 feet from the entrance, Hultine said.
"The student could have quickly walked away and been fine," Hultine
Buffmire said employees tend to be more understanding and less confrontational than students, but being respectful to the safety and security officer is beneficial to everyone.
"If they're nice and appropriate, we are not required to finish a ticket when the owner of a vehicle shows up." Buffmire said. "We are usually very kind about it, and most people understand."
Despite some of the incidents involving his coworkers, Buffmire said he does not feel intimidated on the job.
"I'm never threatened when people walk up when I'm writing a ticket," Buffmire said. "Sometimes they yell, but it's usually not that bad."
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