University Police disciplined an officer after a student accused the officer of abusing power.

The complainant, whose name the Northern Star has chosen to withhold, alleged the officer mistreated her and put her through undue stress when the officer stopped her outside Grant Towers North on Nov. 3.

The student said she had parked her car in front of the residence hall while she went inside to retrieve a textbook from a friend.

When she returned about 15 minutes later, she found a parking ticket on her windshield and two officers standing on the sidewalk, she said.

The officer, who later would be disciplined, told the student not to park in a fire lane, the student said.

“I didn’t know it was a fire lane,” she said. “I parked there, so I was going to take my ticket and leave.”

The officer demanded to see the student’s driver’s license, and began a records check.

At the same time, a man approached his car, which was parked immediately behind the student’s car in the fire lane, the student said.

She said the second officer then told the man he could not park there. The man said he had run inside for just a few minutes, and the officer let him go without a ticket.

After her driver’s license showed no history of tickets, the officer asked to see her insurance card, the student said.

When she only could find expired insurance cards in the car, she tried to make a phone call to find a current card at her home, which is a few minutes away, she said.

The officer told the student to hang up the phone, and when she tried to explain the call, the student said, the officer forcefully told the student to get off the phone.

She said the officer harassed her with an overly authoritative tone and actions when they weren’t necessary.

The officer demanded the student turn her car off after she had started it to keep warm on the chilly night, the student said. She sat in the car for 40 minutes as the officer wrote two tickets, she said.

“I was crying by the time [the officer] came back to the car,” the student said. “[The officer] was abusing [his] badge.”

The student said she was given three tickets, including a $40 parking ticket, a $200 ticket for not having her insurance card and $75 for expired registration.

The officer told her a ticket was not going to be issued for her registration originally, but said she had a bad attitude and decided to write the ticket, the student said.

After a two-week investigation, University Police Lt. Matt Kiederlen said Tuesday the investigation was complete.

“We do find there were errors made on the part of the officer,” Kiederlen said. “Disciplinary action has been taken. Unfortunately, it’s a personnel complaint; I can’t say too much. There are confidentiality issues.”

He declined to say what the disciplinary step was or to confirm the officer’s identity.

The student said she is looking into taking legal action against University Police.

“I feel neither served nor protected,” the student said. “I’m not going to let someone harass me and just take it.”