Tentative Accord May Rein In Park Rangers’ Police Powers

Los Angeles city park rangers consider themselves jacks of all trades, who on a typical work day might lead children on a nature hike in the morning, help fight a fire in the afternoon and arrest a drunk park visitor or graffiti artist in the evening.

But under a tentative agreement signed recently by the city Recreation and Parks Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, rangers would lose most of their power of arrest.

Only in cases in which the rangers’ or park visitors’ lives are in danger would they have the authority under the agreement to make an arrest, and then only after all means of defense or escape have been exhausted.

Several rangers want to forestall the agreement--which still must win approval by the Police Commission and City Council--contending that it would make their jobs and the parks more dangerous.

Rangers, who receive law enforcement training, argue that they do most of the low- and mid-level law enforcement work in parks because police are busy with other calls.

“Removing the rangers from law enforcement duties will open parks to all kinds of criminal activities,” said Joe Tafoya, a Valley-based ranger and representative of the rangers’ union, Local 347 of the Service Employees International Union. “We’re looked at as the first defense. When rangers show up, [park visitors] have to abide by the rules.”

But, in signing the LAPD agreement in March, city Recreation and Parks Department General Manager Ellen Oppenheim said she wants to leave law enforcement to the police and limit rangers primarily to their naturalist work to increase the safety of park patrons and employees.

Emphasis on Hikes, Education

The agreement, which explains each agency’s responsibilities regarding law enforcement in parks, is scheduled to come before the Police Commission June 6, and shortly afterward the Public Safety Committee will consider it.

Oppenheim said the agreement is consistent with city policies and believes it will succeed in the spirit of the 3-year-old Safe Parks program, in which rangers and police have reduced crime in most of the 71 targeted city parks.

The new plan would allow rangers to dedicate more time to leading nature hikes and explorations, said acting Chief Park Ranger Charles Shorts. “We’ve been involved in so much security, we had not been offering sufficient interpretive and educational programming,” he said.

In recent years, for example, rangers have provided security at park carnivals, where gang members sometimes show up, officials said.

Since 1988, rangers have had peace officer status and have received law enforcement training similar to that of reserve police officers, Shorts said. Rangers are issued bulletproof vests and carry LAPD radios in their vehicles. They wear law enforcement’s standard Sam Browne belts containing pepper spray, handcuffs and batons, but they do not carry guns.

Officials said they are also considering changing rangers’ traditional uniforms of green pants and gray shirts so they will look less like sheriff’s deputies. No decision has been made about a new uniform.

There are 42 city park rangers and vacancies for another 14, Shorts said. The rangers are assisted by 65 part-time park patrol officers who also provide security, Shorts said.

Because rangers are so understaffed, the LAPD is better able to cope with crime in parks, Oppenheim said. Between two and 12 rangers patrol the city’s 385 or so parks at any given time, she said.

Most Ask for Guns

For years, most rangers have asked to carry guns because they say their jobs are dangerous. Tafoya, for example, said he and a park visitor were targets of a drive-by shooter in Highland Park last September. Neither was injured.

Like Oppenheim, the LAPD opposes arming rangers.

“I hope to put to bed the issue of arming the rangers,” Oppenheim said. “Guns and parks put visitors and employees at risk. We don’t want to put more guns in the parks.”

Griffith Park Ranger Doug Kilpatrick, also a union representative, said rangers do most of the law enforcement in the parks, including citing or arresting people for drinking, graffiti, carving up trees and driving under the influence.

Rangers are concerned that the agreement would take away their ability to defend themselves, Kilpatrick said. “If I don’t have a right to self-defense, I’m going to think twice about approaching [violators],” he said.

“Our whole philosophy is to deal with small things before they become big issues,” added Kilpatrick, 43, who has been a ranger for nearly 25 years. “We will see the same violations over and over again, and there is nothing to rectify the situation. Taking away our authority to deal with these incidents is not going to make the incidents go away.”

Under the agreement, rangers may still issue citations for a number of minor infractions, such dog leash law violations, parking illegally and littering. For more serious incidents, police would have to be called in.

If the rangers call the LAPD on Friday or Saturday nights, Kilpatrick said, “it may take them hours to arrive. Nothing is going to be done regarding these low-level problems.”

Oppenheim disagreed, saying that the LAPD has the necessary manpower and equipment to patrol the parks.

LAPD Confident About Plan

LAPD officials said that each police division will be responsible for patrolling the parks in its area and that the department is confident about handling the extra work.

“We consider [rangers] as peace officers with a tough job to do. We are not going to leave them hanging,” said LAPD Capt. Kirk Albanese, who works with the Safe Parks program.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who dealt with the issue of arming rangers when she served as chair of the city Public Safety Committee, said some rangers have on occasion put themselves in danger by behaving like police officers and even chasing suspects off park turf. She said the LAPD needs to regularly patrol the parks.

“My hope is [rangers] can evolve back to what they were originally meant to be, and the LAPD can step into the void,” she said.

“I want to keep putting pressure on the LAPD to be in charge of keeping all the parks safe. If we don’t have safe parks in a city, we don’t have a safe city.”