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By Sarah Gojekian: Assistant News Editor

The empty police cars parked around campus will soon be filled as UPD works to crack down on speeding.

UPD has seen an increase in the number of students speeding around campus in the last six months, but additional officers should help fix that, UPD Traffic Officer Gus Carlson said.

“We now have been able to fill vacancies [with current UPD officers],” Carlson said. “There will be traffic officers responsible for traffic safety, enforcing speeding laws and making sure the traffic flows in and out of campus safely.”

Increased UPD manpower means police cars around campus will have an officer inside who is ready to enforce traffic laws.

The speed limit on campus is 30 or 35 mph depending on the location, and some students find this arguable because of heavy traffic.

“I think 35 is a good speed limit because a lot of students are walking to classes, but it is hard to get to class on time because of all the traffic,” freshman business major Matt Strickland said. “People are going to speed no matter what.”

The speeding tickets UPD issues are Florida uniform citations from the state, not from UNF. Therefore, they follow the fines set by the Florida Legislature just as the Jacksonville Sheriff Office does.

When students receive a ticket, they pay it by mail, just as they would a ticket from JSO. The only difference is that the number of speeding or traffic violations made on campus does not affect one’s privilege to have a UNF permit or drive on campus.

“We do reserve the right to refer someone over to Student Conduct if it is constantly happening, but that’s never been the case,” Carlson said.

Sophomore finance major Matthew Rubsamen was pulled over during the spring semester.

“Although I was going 15 miles over, I thought the fine was a bit ludicrous, but the cop handled the situation with me well,” Rubsamen said.

Now that UPD has enough officers to survey drivers by the process of clocking, they hope speeding will reduce, Carlson said.

UPD takes part in a series of nationwide events that happen annually such as DUI enforcement on Labor Day and “Click it or Ticket” around Memorial Day, officials said.

Although no accidents have resulted from speeding on campus, UPD hopes to prevent them from ever happening in the first place.

“[Most] accidents happen in the parking lots with people misjudging corners or backing up.” Carlson said. “But we want to make [the roads] in general a safer ride for students. That is our No. 1 goal.”

E-mail Sarah Gojekian at news@unfspinnaker.com.