By Erasmus Baxter
Western has decided to reimbursed the $1,564 worth of jaywalking citations issued by University Police last Thursday, according to an article on Western Today posted Wednesday, April 19.
University Police Chief Darin Rasmussen met with several students before deciding they had not provided enough notification beforehand, according to the article.
“In retrospect, we should definitely have done more in the way of notification, before issuing tickets. The goal of the enforcement action was never intended to be punitive, but to alert our campus community to the dangers of jaywalking,” he said.
Students who received the tickets will get an email with information about getting the ticket reimbursed, according to the article.
The money will come from the WWU Foundation, Paul Cocke, director of communications and marketing, said. The money will go to Whatcom County District Court, where the tickets are adjudicated.
“Oh thank god!” Fatuma Hussein, one of the 28 students who received a ticket, said in a Facebook message when told about the decision. While she hadn’t seen the email from the university yet, she was glad the university understood how unfair the situation was to its students, she said.
“Most importantly, I’m grateful to all the fellow Western students that spoke out about this and stood amongst each other to fight against something so unfair even if they’re not the ones who got the ticket,” she said in a message. “It really made a difference.”
Rasmussen said that campus police will consider to emphasize jaywalking as a safety issue however.
While jaywalking continues to be of high concern, more education of the campus community is necessary before major police enforcement, Cocke said.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends a three-pronged approach of engineering, education and enforcement,” he said in an email.
As of 1:20 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, a sign warning students about jaywalking remained at the intersection outside the Wade King Rec Center, where the tickets were issued.
Read the initial story here:
https://wp.wwu.edu/theasreview/2018/04/12/campus-police-issue-1564-worth-of-tickets-near-rec-center/
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.