EPCC
Police officers will have more time to tend to important duties at
the Valle Verde campus due to a pilot program which trains and employs
students as Parking Enforcers. 
It is their duty to ticket vehicles not up-to-date on parking decals
or violating parking regulations.
“This is just a pilot program, but if it works I hope to have
at least one to two student per each campus.”
So far, this program has employed only two students in part-time,
paid positions. The program allows them to not only work around campus,
but also around their class schedules. If the program is successful,
EPCC Chief of Police JR Grijalva hopes to expand the program to every
EPCC campus in the spring semester. “This will free officers
in preventing crimes and tending to other duties,” said Grijalva.
During the week of Oct. 2-8 the two new ticket enforcers issued a
total of 728 tickets just for parking and decal violations alone.
Jackie Ponce, medical lab.
major, is one of two student Parking Enforcers monitoring
the Valle Verde parking lots. During the week of Oct. 2-8, 728 citations
were issued.
Photo by Leslie
Council
Some
students are skeptical of the new program. Several students were worried
about tickets issued based on discrimination towards other students
and that it should be dealt by officers themselves and not in the
hands of students.
“It’s okay to help out, however I feel it is more of an
issue for the department,” stated Marcie Marie Quintana, Nursing
student.
Other students, like Jackie Ponce, jumped on the opportunity to work
with the EPCCPD. Ponce, a part-time student majoring in medical Laboratory
said this job would not change her major, but it’s still not
what she expected.
“I expected students to be more aggressive. I thought I was
going to get a lot of heat, but didn’t,” said Ponce. She
said sometimes students inquire if she is also a student, but many
have not been offended. Ponce even said they were respectful and understood
that she was just doing her job.
Ponce encourages students to consider this job if offered in the spring.
“It’s writing tickets for eight hours a day, but the people
you work with are nice, and the job isn’t stressful at all,”
said Ponce.
