SANTA ANA : Council Endorses Arming Rangers

By the end of the year, the city’s five full-time park rangers will become the first in Orange County allowed to carry handguns on patrol.

The City Council on Monday unanimously endorsed the idea of arming the rangers and directed the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that will allow them to carry .357-caliber Smith & Wesson revolvers while patrolling Santa Ana’s 38 parks. The rangers already wear bulletproof vests and carry batons, Mace and two-way radios.

City Manager David N. Ream said that setting up a program to arm the rangers would take about nine months and cost about $20,000.

“I think it would be in the best interest of the department if we proceed with a sensible plan of testing and arming the park rangers,” Ream said. “It needs to be done in a thoughtful, thorough way.”

But Councilman Richards L. Norton urged the council to make sure that the rangers are armed “as soon as possible.”

“Every day they are out there without the necessary protection, including firearms, they are in jeopardy,” Norton said. “There’s a tremendous need out there, and it’s just a matter of making it a priority.”

Sean Mill, chairman of the city’s Recreation and Community Advisory Board, agreed.

“I would like to see it implemented as soon as possible rather than wait nine months, because gang problems get worse,” Mill said. “I think the summer is going to be a bad one in Santa Ana, and I’d like to see our rangers armed before then.”

Rangers already have undergone 360 hours of reserve officer classes, which include training with firearms, but they will have to complete gun certification training, Ream said.

Although city officials said no park ranger has ever been stabbed or shot on duty, shots were fired recently in the direction of an on-duty ranger, said Allen Doby, director of the city Recreation and Community Services Agency.

The park ranger program was begun in Santa Ana nine years ago to combat vandalism in the parks. Since the patrols began, vandalism has dropped from 9,000 incidents a month to about 1,000, Doby said. In addition to patrolling, rangers also are in charge of locking restrooms and closing parks at night.

The city also employs eight part-time rangers who will not be allowed to carry guns. Doby said part-timers do not patrol at night.