WHO IS ASKING FOR CHANGES TO THE PARK RANGER DIVISION?
Not the park-using community. Over the past year, the Recreation and Parks Department and City officials have been asked in writing by several neighborhood and park-using groups to please dialogue with the community about any potential changes to the Park Rangers Division. This request went unanswered and instead, substantive changes to and reductions in the Park Rangers' role in the parks were revealed at City Hall on October 6. They are slated to be enacted, without public input on October 25.
WHAT EXACTLY DO PARK RANGERS DO?
Currently, Park Rangers service and patrol the City's large regional parks such as Griffith Park, Elysian Park, O'Melveny Park, Debs Park, Harbor Regional Park, Sepulveda Basin, Hansen Dam, and others. They are peace officers and first responders. They are skilled at conflict resolution. They are knowledgeable about all aspects of the parks they patrol, and by their presence enhance the visitor experience.
Services provided by Park Rangers include:
1. Security and public safety
|
|
4. Community Policing |
2. Firefighting
|
|
5. Resource and wildlife protection |
| 3. Search and Rescue |
|
6. Education and interpretive services |
Park Rangers in the field enforce:
• Alcohol laws
|
|
• Trespass laws |
• Trail safety codes
|
|
• No smoking laws |
• Fire code violations
|
|
• Handicapped and other parking violations |
• Narcotics violations
|
|
• Animal welfare/abuse laws |
| • Vandalism and graffiti laws |
|
• Vehicle code violations |
| • Many quality of life laws and ordinances that other agencies do not address |
Park Rangers' unique combination of skills allow them to respond to a broad range of problems, prioritizing and solving them as they arise, and calling in other agencies as needed. In discussing this issue, keep in mind:
| 1 . Between 2004-08, Neighborhood Councils representing more than 800,000. stakeholders passed resolutions supporting Park Rangers as Peace Officers and the first line of defense against calamity and crime in our Parks. They asked for more Park Rangers to patrol our parks. Expanding this number, many more community groups and neighborhood associations also passed resolutions, motions, or statements, |
2. Park Rangers do more than respond to complaint calls. They possess an overview of each park they serve and often nip potential problems in the bud. |
3. Park Rangers do more than provide Interpretive services. Interpretive services constitute about 1/6th (or 17%) of the full set of Park Ranger duties. The rest of Park Rangers' time is spent performing the essential services listed above. This is true of both Rangers with Peace Officer status and those lacking Peace Officer status. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Park Ranger Current Duties
MS Word doument
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
