Weapons for Lifeguards : Plan Would Beef Up Park, Beach Patrols

Concerned about crime in San Diego’s recreational areas, a City Council committee today is expected to review a task force’s proposals that would replace the Mission Bay Harbor Patrol with armed police officers and allow lifeguards to carry batons and Mace.

The proposals--including the formation of a “park ranger” force to patrol Balboa Park and Lake Murray--were made public Tuesday after a joint, three-month study by police, fire and park officials.

Perhaps predictably, the recommendations drew immediate praise from lifeguards, who said that they sometimes fear for their safety while patroling the beaches without any form of protection. The recommendations also generated criticism from the Mission Bay Harbor Patrol, whose 29 unarmed officers contend that they already fulfill the role of regular police.

“We could do the job of regular police officers with a little more training and equipment,” said Harbor Patrol Sgt. Charles Wright. “With this plan, you’re taking street policemen and putting them in boats. They don’t have a real good feel for the water.”

The Harbor Patrol was formed in 1952 as part of San Diego’s lifeguard service. It is managed today by the Coastal Division of the Park and Recreation Department. It operates five patrol vessels and a firefighting boat.

“I was a lifeguard for four years before I joined the Harbor Patrol,” Wright noted. “Now, they’re telling me I’m going to have my classification changed, and I may become a lifeguard again. I’m not too happy about that.”

In a request to the City Council’s Public Services and Safety Committee, the lifeguard service in January proposed that its members be designated park rangers with limited peace officer status. City officials, however, decided to expand the proposal and examine safety issues in San Diego’s recreational areas “with the goal of improving safety for both the public and city employees.”

The result was the formation of a task force chaired by Deputy City Manager Sue Williams. Members included Assistant Police Chief Robert Burgreen, Assistant Fire Chief Don Farney and George Loveland, San Diego Park and Recreation Department director.

“Concurrent with San Diego’s near-doubling of population in the last 25 years, the city’s major recreational areas have experienced a substantial increase in use,” Williams said in a five-page city manager’s report on the task force’s proposals. “Along with that increased use, there has been an increase in criminal activity which involves primarily crimes against property but which occasionally subjects the public and city employees to threatened personal confrontations and/or violence.”

It was found that, in many cases, lifeguards and other recreational personnel are poorly equipped and inadequately trained to handle such confrontations, 80% of which involved citizens who were drinking.

The task force proposed that the city manager’s office initiate a “thorough evaluation” of restricting alcohol use in some beach and park areas.

It also recommended that:

- A new classification of city employee, “park ranger,” patrol Balboa Park and Lake Murray. Later, the rangers might expand to other regional parks including Penasquitos, Mission Trails, Tecolote and Mission Bay.

- Offices for the Police Department’s already existing Beach Enforcement Team be established at lifeguard stations in Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, south Pacific Beach and La Jolla Shores. The offices would increase police visibility and would be used by regular patrol officers for lunch breaks and meetings.

- Designate lifeguards as park rangers and outfit them with Mace and batons. Lifeguards would have no more law enforcement responsibility than they do now, but the new equipment would allow them to more adequately protect themselves, according to the task force.

- Disband the Mission Bay Harbor Patrol and assign lifeguards to staff the patrol’s communications tower and Mission Bay Park headquarters. Lifeguards would patrol the bay from dawn to dusk; regular police officers would patrol there from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In addition, lifeguards, police officers and firefighters would all be trained in the operation of the city’s rescue-fireboat, Alert.

San Diego’s chief lifeguard, Capt. Bill Norton, said Tuesday that if the proposal is approved, the city’s 33 full-time lifeguards would be trained in the use of Mace and batons, as would 25 part-time lifeguards hired in the winter.

The city employs an additional 80 part-time lifeguards in the summer. However, because their job classification is lower than winter lifeguards’, the summer employees would remain unarmed, Norton said.

City Councilman Mike Gotch, whose district encompasses the beach area, said the proposals drafted by the city manager’s office don’t go far enough. He plans to recommend that community service officers or police reservists be immediately assigned to Balboa Park until the park ranger force is established.

Community service officers are unarmed and support regular police officers by taking reports and writing parking tickets.

Gotch said he also supports the plan to provide lifeguards with batons and Mace.

“They deal with many more problems than the helpless swimmer 200 yards out,” he said.

Times staff writer Scott Harris contributed to this article.