Rangers Await Day They Can Carry Guns : Public safety: Rancho Simi park officers are unarmed now, but the policy will change in March. Some people want the ban to stay.

There were moments of uncertainty when Rancho Simi Park Rangers Don Watstein and Jerry DeRosa screeched their Jeep to a halt behind four teen-agers who were huddled around a bong on a Frontier Park bench.

Before the boys had time to dash or throw away a trace amount of marijuana that was packed into the water pipe, Watstein had one in handcuffs and DeRosa had frisked the others for weapons. Satisfied that they faced no danger, the two officers relaxed and began their work.

“Listen to me,” Watstein told one 16-year-old while he wrapped the boy’s bong in a plastic bag and crushed it under his boot. “We’re the police of the park and we can take you in. That’s not something you want to happen.”

Watstein knew that he was going to let the teen-agers off with a warning this time. But his stern tone and heavy hand were enough to convince the four boys that they were in trouble. The dejected teen-agers even dispersed to pick up litter around the quiet Simi Valley playground before Watstein and DeRosa let them go.

For the two veteran rangers, both of whom worked 20 years as Los Angeles police officers before joining the tiny but gritty park force, a shiny badge, tough talk and fast action carry them through similar confrontations every day.

But, with the steady rise in gang activity and the prevalence of weapons in Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District’s 2,400 acres of parkland, the rangers fear that a heavy hand could be too light if it’s not holding a gun.

“We get to a scene of a fight and the gangbangers laugh at us,” said 52-year-old DeRosa, who worked at the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters at Parker Center.

“They say, ‘You can’t do anything to us; you’re just park rangers,’ ” he said. “We don’t exactly have their respect.”

It was that plea that persuaded park district trustees in December to allow the three full-time rangers to carry side arms starting next month.

The decision was criticized by some as an unnecessary step in a city hailed as one of the nation’s safest.

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Jim Meredith, the only district board member who opposed the measure, said he believed that guns would increase the risk of violent confrontation. And some park-goers agreed.

“I think they’re doing a fine job without guns,” said Luther Roman, 24, of Simi Valley. “It’s just going to make things more dangerous.”

But Watstein said rangers can no longer be safe without a gun to back them up.

“We’re not just jingling keys any more,” Watstein said. “We have a job to do, and the job is to keep these parks safe.”

In 1994, Watstein said the most serious crimes committed in Rancho Simi parks included 20 weapons violations, 104 gang interventions, 84 narcotics arrests, 9 arson fires, 6 prostitution arrests and 6 felony arrests.

Which is not to say that crime has overtaken Rancho Simi parks. It has not.

Most nights, Watstein, DeRosa and Chuck Gourley spend their time corralling loose dogs, scolding alcoholics, and chatting with the teen-agers, joggers, hikers and bikers who visit the district’s 40 parks in Simi Valley and Oak Park.

The rangers’ 100-mile nightly patrol includes the mundane tasks of locking restrooms, flipping off lights and delivering mail to park district board members.

And as they drive through the parks in their four-wheel-drive patrol vehicle, with red lights and radios, they often take time to stop and chat with teen-agers who consider the parks a place of refuge in a city that offers few outlets for its younger residents.

One, an 11th-grader from Royal High School who wore baggy pants, a red flannel shirt and a goatee, hung out by the phones in Rancho Simi Park. DeRosa talked with the youth, asking why he left school. The teen-ager reached into his deep pocket and pulled out a crumpled report card.

“Let’s see here,” DeRosa said, scanning the card. “F, F, F, F, F.” He paused, rubbing his hand on his chin. “That’s OK. You made it to 11th grade; that’s good.”

DeRosa, who spends most of his off-duty time bass fishing, said the job has brought him into contact with numerous teen-agers who, having no job and no school, find refuge in the parks.

“There’s just not much you can do for them,” he said. “They’re heading to prison, most likely. It’s too bad. It’s a loss.”

The youths turn to gangs or drugs, he said, and the parks offer them seclusion from the rest of the world.

“We’ve had people down here firing off guns; we’ve had parties with guys in Mohawks and red hair,” Watstein said. “This is not just Smokey the Bear stuff we’re doing.”

Now that the rangers have been granted permission to carry weapons, DeRosa said his job will be much easier.

“There are certain tools we need to be law enforcement-type officers out here,” DeRosa said. “If you’re going to ask us to enforce the laws and to face the dangers we could potentially face, we need to have red lights, we need to have radios, we need to have uniforms and we need to carry a weapon.

“It’s the price we pay for keeping these parks safe for everyone.”