By Meredith Garrett, PTMP
We obtained our first mobile LPR system in 2021 with the intention of going permitless after the first year of working out all the bugs, kinks and nuisances that having virtual permits brings. The uncertainty of budget constraints related to the pandemic and the turnover of staff delayed the roll out by several years. We made the decision that 2026 is the year to go permitless at Kent State! Some initial thoughts to help make the transition smooth include the following.
We’re planning to implement slowly with targeted user groups initially. We’ll start with students first, then faculty and staff, vendors and contractors, visitors, then events. This should allow us time to work through any issues that might arise and eliminate the largest group of permits initially to provide the greatest efficiency upfront.
We plan to engage our university marketing and communications team to provide a roll out platform to inform our stakeholders prior to implementation. We envision a social media campaign and email marketing to raise awareness.
The most difficult groups to capture and what we foresee being the biggest challenge to permitless operations is the one-time visitors and events. We’re currently analyzing different solutions to see what is the most cost effective and user-friendly options for our guests to campus. These groups have been our biggest hangup because we don’t know quite how to handle them yet in a permitless environment.
We’re looking forward to the efficiencies that LPR provides, but we also know that this will be a big change for our campus community.
Meredith Garrett, PTMP, is the Assistant Director of Public Safety, Parking & Transit Services for Kent State University. Meredith can be reached at mgarre12@kent.edu.