For the last five years, Craig Jarvis has skateboarded to Cal State Long Beach from his home. It wasn’t until his skateboard was confiscated and he received a ticket for $281 that he realized he was doing something wrong.
“A cop stopped me my freshman year and straight up told me that if I wasn’t defacing property and it wasn’t crowded that I wouldn’t be bothered,” Jarvis, a senior consumer affairs major, said. “This semester, all of a sudden, it feels like they will come after you.”
Skateboarding is illegal anywhere on the CSULB campus and has been for years, according to the Long Beach Municipal Code 10.54.040 (G).
Skateboarders tend to drawn attention when the skateboard’s wheels come off the ground to do a trick. Despite what many students think, there is no official policy stating that the wheels need to remain on the ground.
“Absent a complaint or officers seeing dangerous and/or damaging activity, it is at the individual officer’s discretion as to when they stop,” Brown said.
Signs prohibiting skateboarding can be found at every major campus entrance, according to University Police Captain Scott Brown.
Early this September, Jarvis was stopped and ticketed in between the Center for Business Administration building and the Horn Center while trying to leave campus. The reasoning was heavy pedestrian traffic, according to the citation.
“I felt like they were waiting for people to go by, like a speed trap,” Jarvis said. “I asked him if the policy changed because I was in complete control of what I was doing. He said it was because of heavy pedestrian traffic. There couldn’t have been more than five people around.”
University Police have been increasing the amount of stops, warnings and tickets given this semester. From September 2011 to September 2012, there were a total of 35 tickets issued and 238 people stopped for skateboarding. In less than three months, this semester has seen 14 tickets issued and a total of 126 people stopped for skateboarding, according to Brown.
Students like Jarvis believe the discretion given by officers seems inconsistent and unpredictable.
“I haven’t seen a single sign,” Jarvis said. “You can’t just pick and choose who to ticket, it’s not fair. It allows discrimination against students.”
Other students, like senior business marketing major Daniel Zimmerman, said that skateboarding is just as safe as any other form of transportation.
“It’s a convenient mode of transportation, just like bicycles or scooters,” Zimmerman said. “I’ve seen more people walk into poles while texting than I’ve seen crash on skateboards.”
Senior kinesiology major Anthony Ballez said he thinks there should be a program to license skateboarders who take a safety course.
“That way it would at least be clear who is in the wrong,” Ballez said. “People aren’t just going to stop skating, so why ticket people who are being safe?”
Skateboarding has become so common that when the Student Recreation and Wellness Center opened in 2010 it put a skateboard rack outside.
Ballez says that he wouldn’t have known skateboarding on campus was illegal if he hadn’t been stopped.
“It was news to me when I got stopped,” Ballez said. “I had never seen a sign then, and I [still] haven’t seen one.”
The signs prohibiting skateboarding can usually be found attached to larger traffic signs.
While ticketing is almost entirely up to the individual officer’s discretion, there are a few factors that normally influence the decision, according to Brown.
“Skateboarding in areas of high pedestrian activity, skateboarding dangerously or without regard for surroundings, or doing tricks generally will increase the likelihood of a stop,” Brown said.
