People parking illegally on campus with forged parking permits is a big problem at UNM, said Clovis Acosta, director of the Parking and Transportation Services department.
Between 200-300 of the phony permits are confiscated from cars in University parking lots every semester, according to Parking and Transportation Services department numbers.
"There is always someone trying to test the system," Acosta said. "It is part of their challenge."
Acosta said the offenders, most of whom are students, have gotten very talented at imitating the authenticity of the permits, thanks to an increase in technology.
"They've gotten pretty good at replicating these things," he said. "Every semester they seem to get better and better."
Anyone caught parking on campus with a forged permit is slapped with $100 fine.
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Their car is also booted, and they have to turn the forged permit over to the parking department and pay any outstanding parking citations before it will be removed.
A boot is a locking device that is attached to wheel of the car, rendering it immobile.
University parking officers, who patrol UNM's many parking lots looking for illegally parked vehicles and forged permits, go through specialized training through the parking department to help them detect the fakes, Acosta said.
"These people are taking valuable parking spaces away from legitimate people just trying to get to campus," he said. "Luckily, our people are pretty capable of finding the illegal permits."
The small reflector strip on parking permits is the hardest thing to reproduce, Acosta said, and it is what tips parking officers off about their lack of authenticity most of the time.
However, with the advent of color printers and the innovations in computer technology, he said he sees some permits that are nearly flawless.
In an effort to curb the ability to reproduce them, Acosta said the permit manufacturer is constantly implementing new "tricks." Individual barcodes, which the parking officers will be able to scan through the windshield, is the newest change that will be made to UNM's parking system soon.
UNMPD Cmdr. James Daniels said the department has been involved in several instances of permit forgery, and that it is a bigger offense than most people think.
"If it constitutes a forgery, then in a sense it constitutes a felony," he said.
Daniels could not recall ever pushing for criminal charges against a person caught with a fake permit at UNM.
Many members of the University community said it enrages them that people would try to steal their parking spaces.
"They're freeloaders, plain and simple," said James Anderson, a UNM graduate student. "They are creative, I'll give them that. But what they are doing is wrong and it impacts everyone who has to park here."
Carlos Griego, a UNM senior, said he is glad the parking department is doing what it can to catch the offenders.
"We pay our fees for these (parking) spots," he said. "It's not right that they should get away with this."
Acosta said the parking department realizes it can't find every forged permit, but that its employees are getting smarter every day about the problem and are working to rid the University's parking lots of the fakes.
"It's just not worth it," he said. "But there are those out there who will test us. But we will bust them, sooner or later."
