Simi Parks Officials Get Ready to Arm Rangers : Recreation: District tentatively approves policy requiring guns and protective vests. The areas are still called safe but gangs are minutes away.

Rangers patrolling 40 parks in Simi Valley and Oak Park will no longer have to depend on their tan uniforms to command respect. Beginning in mid-November, they also will carry guns, if a new firearms policy is approved later this month.

The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, which voted last November to arm its three full-time rangers, fine-tuned a firearms policy at its board meeting Thursday that would require rangers on patrol to both carry firearms and wear protective vests. The policy is expected to come back before the board for final approval in two weeks.

“We’re in such close proximity to Los Angeles and the gangs have moved this way,” said ranger Chuck Gourley, who would carry either a Smith and Wesson or Beretta semiautomatic handgun he owns, both of which are on the district’s approved list. “We run into all kinds of strange things in parks.”

But, while he is glad to have the added protection, he said his feelings are mixed over Thursday’s decision.

“In my heart, I think it’s a sad day for the district and for Simi Valley,” he said. “But let’s face reality. It’s the 1990s and people are shooting people out there.”

The rangers, who must purchase and maintain their own weapons at a cost of about $700 apiece, can choose their weapons from among a list of several semiautomatic guns and revolvers.

The three rangers, all retired police officers with more than 20 years experience each, together with a fourth ranger to be hired later this year, must pass a test demonstrating their proficiency with the weapons.

Chairman James Meredith, who was the sole dissenting vote during last November’s decision to arm the rangers, said Thursday that he still has misgivings.

“I have always felt if you have a weapon, someone is going to challenge you to use it,” he said.

The Rancho Simi district, which encompasses 2,400 acres of parkland and undeveloped open space, is the first of the three recreation districts in the county to arm its rangers. Neither Conejo nor Pleasant Valley recreation and park districts, which cover Thousand Oaks and Camarillo respectively, allow rangers to carry weapons.

Parks in the remaining cities and county areas are patrolled by armed city or county police officers or sheriff’s deputies.

Rancho Simi district officials hastened to point out that the move to arm rangers does not mean the parks are unsafe. They said statistics show that incidents of crime are still low.

In 1994, the most serious crimes committed in the district’s parks included 20 weapons violations, 104 gang interventions, 84 narcotics arrests, nine arson fires, six prostitution arrests and six other felony arrests.

The proposed policy includes an amendment to the district’s operational procedures to cover such issues as “use of deadly force.” According to the policy, rangers could use deadly force to protect themselves or to prevent violence against other people or to capture a person suspected of acts of violence.

Rangers say their duties on most nights at the parks are routine, taken up with such ordinary tasks as locking bathrooms and turning off lights.

But there are also nights when Gourley said his side arm will be a welcome addition to his uniform.

“The crooks and gangs don’t read the patch on your shoulder that says ‘park ranger,’ ” he said. “They see the green-and-tan uniform and figure you’re a deputy sheriff. We’ve got the big belt with no gun.”

Gourley, who lived in Simi Valley 30 years ago when he was on the Los Angeles Police Department, said things have changed. “I didn’t even carry a gun off duty then,” he said. “I wish it had stayed the way it was 30 years ago.”

But he said with Los Angeles County gangs only 10 minutes across the Santa Susana Pass from Simi Valley or down the Ventura Freeway from Thousand Oaks, the weapons are needed to ensure the safety of the officers and park visitors.

“Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley are still two of the safest places to live,” he said. “But times are changing.”