ORANGE : Pairs of Guards Start to Patrol City Parks

Starting this week, the city will keep a sharper eye on its parks.

Under a new program, pairs of park guards will patrol the city’s 13 parks by car and on foot. Afternoon and evening patrols will be emphasized.

The council approved the program in December in response to complaints from people who said that some parks are becoming hangouts for transients.

“Calls to the mayor’s hot line have been increasing from people who pay the taxes on parks and are afraid to use them,” Mayor Don E. Smith said.

The officers are civilians, but all five who have been hired so far have been through police academy training and have been reserve police officers for the city. The park guards will wear badges, uniforms and batons but will not carry weapons.

On Thursday, the five new guards and park maintenance supervisors Paul Lobato and Jim Smith piled into a white city van and toured the parks.

The supervisors pointed out the hot spots in each park--where people gather and drink, where graffiti tends to appear and where the homeless find temporary shelter.

“We want the use (of parks) and we encourage it,” Jim Smith said. “We just don’t want the abuse.”

The parks with the most problems are Eisenhower, El Camino and Hart Park, Police Capt. Dean Richards said. Hart Park, at 39 acres, is the largest.

The guards, who have been patrolling the parks on a less frequent basis as reserve officers for about six months, have issued 200 to 300 citations for drinking in public and other offenses, he said.

At Hart Park, where free meals attract several hundred homeless people each afternoon, loitering and drinking are big problems, city officials said.

Thursday morning, the park guards saw piles of bedding, clothes and trash in bushes at Hart Park and found one man huddled beneath a freeway overpass.

By day, the officers will just walk by. But after 10 p.m., they will ask people to leave, because sleeping in city parks is illegal. The guards will pass out cards with the names and addresses of places needy people can go for shelter, clothing, food and other help.

As public service officers, they can issue citations and make citizens’ arrests, but regular police officers will be called if the guards need them, Richards said. The park guards will carry police radios and be in frequent contact with police dispatchers.

“We want the public to be aware that they can come and talk to us anytime,” said Tammy Hall, one of the new guards. “If there’s a problem, they should tell us about it.”