Dear Bucknellians,
The Public Safety team is excited to welcome our students for the 2023-24 academic year. We’ve recently made some significant updates, so please review this information to ensure you are up to date.
Parking
Effective Aug. 1, Bucknell will move to digital vehicle permitting with License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology. In this system, license plates will take the place of physical decals. All parking citations for students and employees will be issued via email. Citations for unregistered vehicles or campus visitors will be issued on paper.
While we will no longer issue physical decals, students, faculty and staff will still need to register their vehicles and park in designated parking lots on campus. Student vehicle registration will open online on Aug. 1. Employees who currently have registered vehicles do not need to take any action.
The LPR system that is affixed to a Public Safety vehicle scans license plates and captures violations in parking lots. Citations will be automatically sent to the vehicle owner’s Bucknell email address. If the vehicle is not registered, a paper citation will be left on the vehicle. As a reminder, if your vehicle receives five citations during the academic year, it will be towed for any and all subsequent violations during that academic year.
Please note that license plates must be visible from the nearest roadway or vehicle path when parked in any Bucknell-owned parking space. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation only issues rear-facing license plates. Vehicles with only rear-facing plates should pull forward into parking spaces. Vehicles with forward-facing plates may back into parking spaces. Those that do not adhere to this regulation will be ticketed.
Visitors will continue to register to park the same way they always have. They will continue to park in designated visitor spaces or along Moore Avenue.
Thank you for helping us transition to the LPR system, which supports the University’s sustainability efforts and increases efficiency for our officers. More details about vehicle registration and parking can be found here. Questions may be directed to parking@bucknell.edu.
PARKING STATS
Total number of citations issued 2021-2022 academic year= 8,929
Total number of citations issued 2022-2023 academic year= 4,365
Vehicles towed 2022-2023 academic year= 140+
We implemented towing during the academic year 2022-2023. We had a statically significant number of parking offenders get close to the threshold of having their vehicle become tow eligible and then stop offending.
BSAFE App
We are excited to introduce the BSAFE app, our newest safety enhancement for the Bucknell community. The BSAFE app can be downloaded from Apple Store or Google Play by students, faculty and staff. Here are some of the app’s benefits and features:
- Your phone can act as a mobile blue light if you choose to enable the location feature. Tap the blue light function button to request Public Safety to respond immediately to your location.
- You can report a tip to Public Safety through the app and add photos or video to aid in our response and investigation.
- You can request a “friend walk,” which allows you to share your location and have a friend or family member virtually follow you to your destination. They can trigger a call to emergency services if needed.
- A “social escape” feature provides assistance in getting to a safe location if you need to leave an uncomfortable or awkward situation.
- Public Safety can send emergency alerts through the app and allow users to view a history of previous alerts.
- The app includes an easily accessible list of support resources with phone numbers and email addresses.
- The University’s emergency plans will be added to the app for quick access for review.
We encourage everyone to download the app and explore its features. Questions or feedback may be directed to publicsafety@bucknell.edu.
Training
Public Safety continues to offer training to the campus community and is pleased to add CPR classes to our selection of topics. While all training sessions are free, there is a $5 fee to obtain a CPR card from the American Red Cross following successful completion of the class. Available classes include the following:
- CPR
- Active Shooter
- Situational Awareness
- De-escalation
- Personal Self-defense
- Workplace Violence Mitigation Strategies
For more information or to arrange a training session for a Bucknell group, please email publicsafety@bucknell.edu.
Tiered Response Model
Public Safety has implemented a tiered response model. Our staff consists of sworn police officers and unarmed community service officers. For vehicle lockouts, room unlocks, vehicle jumpstarts, safe escorts and certain noise complaints, an unarmed community service officer can respond. For criminal matters and alarms, a Public Safety officer will respond. We patrol and have police powers within the campus geography, which includes Bucknell-owned or leased properties.
Finally, you will continue to see Public Safety team members walking the campus to get to know Bucknellians during non-crisis moments. We look forward to meeting you and answering any questions you may have about Public Safety.
Therapy Dog
Please use the link below to view the video on our new furry friend joining us in October!