Some time ago I worked for the PD of a major university in Boston (not BU). My info came from the prosecutor for said PD, so I'm passing it on but won't vouch for the accuracy of any of that info. All FT POs of said university were fully academy trained and sworn in as Special State Police and Special Deputy Sheriffs.
He has the authority....
You were double parked...... What's the problem?
Move your car and be glad you did not get cited.
I was told that campus POs do NOT have authority to give out traffic or parking tickets. They do it and enforce it upon students under threat of holding back grades (all laid out in the Student Handbook) . . . but if a non-student, non-staff member were to get a ticket they could safely ignore it. [NOTE: There is a statutory exception for UMass Police, they are authorized to issue traffic/parking tickets that will stick.]
Now, that said . . . if you refuse to move, he just needs to radio BPD to back him up and you can get a real ticket that will stick by a Boston PO.
Being polite and when you are in the wrong, following orders is the best solution regardless of what authority the BU PO has or perceives that he has.
HC, in Downtown Boston everyone double-parks. Even Boston PD double-parks to grab coffee or subs around the universities. Doesn't make it right, but it is SOP all over the Downtown area . . . and makes driving very difficult.
I believe that most or all special state officers (including most/all campus police) in theory have Chapter 90 powers, as do Sheriff's depts and constables. However, in practice they are not given the ticket books, so they can't actually write tickets for the most part.
This is the kicker, most have the legal ok to enforce these laws but not the mechanism in place. Read the start of chapter 90 and it says who is issued ticket books. Some agencies, I have heard, get around not being issued ticket books by using books from another agency.
Exactly! As a Constable, I have the statutory authority to issue tickets . . . but none of us would ever be given a ticket book to do so! No desire to do it anyway as it wastes my time and I don't get paid to do that job. Just pointing out as the above does, that the RMV is very protective of WHO gets to issue tickets and if some agency "shares" the books and the RMV finds out there is hell to pay (book s/ns are logged as to what agency they were issued to) . . . it's happened before and raised a huge stink.