BURBANK : Council May Hire Armed Park Rangers
The Burbank City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to consider hiring six armed park rangers who will patrol city parks fighting crime, vandalism and gang activity.
The park rangers, with khaki shirts, green pants and specially marked green-and-white four-wheel-drive patrol cars, would work as an arm of the Burbank Police Department. They would take over a job now handled by volunteers and one reserve police officer who reports to the Parks and Recreation Department.
“This is to ensure that the parks are safe for residents,” Parks and Recreation Director Mary Alvord said. “If someone wants to walk their dog at 10 o’clock at night, they will be able to do that.”
As proposed, the ranger patrol would include one full-time ranger and five part-time rangers working from 8 a.m. to midnight on weekends and from 6 p.m. to midnight on weeknights. The cost would be $140,000.
The volunteer park-patrol program began in 1988. Volunteers patrol the city’s 22 parks on a rotating schedule. The volunteers cannot make arrests or issue tickets but only call for help when they see trouble such as graffiti, vandalism, disorderly conduct or other crimes.
A new ban on alcohol in all city parks, which went into effect in July, has added to the burden of patrolling the parks, Alvord said.
“This would send a real strong message that the city is not going to tolerate that,” Alvord said.
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