Portland (Obstruer
Page 4
A p ril 24, 2013
Needles with the residue o f illegal drugs are found and picked up
by a Portland Park Ranger along the Vera Katz East Esplanade.
Tlic
parJ<S
have
c o n t i n u e d f r o m fron t
While they don’t carry a gun and
can’t arrest you, they do have the
authority to kick you out of a park
for violating any rule under city
code Title 20. But for the most part
their intentions are true: to make
people feel safe and enjoy their park
experience.
Citizens may have noticed an
uptick in the number of forest green-
clad Park Rangers cruising down
city streets and arpund the W ater­
front on mountain bikes.
That’s because last spring Port­
land Parks and Recreation expanded
their Park Rangers program from
one full-time, year-around ranger,
hired in 2010 to patrol Forest Park, to
include three more full-time rangers
to patrol the city’s central business
district and downtown’s 16 parks.
In addition, PPR has employed 10
seasonal park rangers who cover
the more than 275 parks in south­
west, southeast, north and north­
east Portland.
During winter months, the sea­
sonal rangers are on-call, while in
summer they go to work on regular
Eyes
schedules as more people take ad­
vantage of the fresh air and green
space that comes with warm er
weather.
Generally, parks in Portland are
pretty safe. You can find the busi­
ness clad taking lunch in Chapman
Square, hikers cruising Forest Park,
dog walkers strolling Mount Tabor,
mothers pushing baby strollers in
Laurelhurst, teens playing ball at
Irvington, hipsters blanketing Colo­
nel Summers Park with bikes and
hula hoops while toddlers running
through Waterfront fountains.
Som etim es, however, danger
lurks.
Last summer, the crossfire from
two young men who pumped bul­
lets through a family-packed Penin­
sula Park in north Portland, height­
ened safety concerns. The sus­
pected gang-related incident gave
reason for the city to boost security
at community centers. This sum­
mer, there will be closer to 20 sea­
sonal parks rangers on patrol, in­
stead of 10.
“Park Rangers are additional eyes
and ears for the community and the
police,” said Hasan Artharee, who
photos by
C ari H achmann /T he P ortland O bserver
Park Ranger Vicente Harrison stumbles onto a camp site on the east side o f the Willamette River,
south o f the Steel Bridge. Rangers are trained to converse with the array o f people they encounter.
Violations o f park rules can result in something as simple as explanation o f park rules to a formal
warning or 30-day exclusion from the park.
worked 14 years in private security
before PPR hired him shortly before
the Peninsula shooting as the Park
Ranger Supervisor.
B ecause a se cu rity cam era
pointed at the exit of a park bath­
room door aided in the arrest of the
Peninsula shooters, PPR has also
decided to increase the number of
security cameras at Portland’s com­
munity centers from 89 cameras to
140 system-wide.
“Parks can become magnets for
predators,” said Portland Park Rang­
ers Security Manager Art Hendricks.
“We want to make sure we have
good measures in place that if an
incident were to occur, we could
work with the law to apprehend such
folks,” including sex offenders and
vandals.
Since 1997, the city had relied on
private security, contracted season­
ally, to patrol parks and keep an eye
on up to a 1,000more city owned and
operated properties undesignated
for public use.
But in 2010, the parks department
ditched the private company for their
own Park Rangers program. PPR
wanted to put a face to their depart­
ment and make park rangers ambas­
sadors of city parks.
Using existing funds, PPR hired
park rangers to not only provide
security and enforce city codes, but
to build friendlier and more familiar
relationships with people in the
community.
Diversifying the ranger force was
a big part of that said Artharee. “We
wanted to get individuals from the
community who could interact and
build relationships with the people
they served.”
While all rangers are state certi­
fied by the Department of Public
Safety, Hendricks said they wanted
their rangers to go “above and be­
yond” providing security, and be
able to interact with individuals af­
fected by community-wide issues
like the mentally ill and homeless.
Park Rangers train with Oregon
State Parks, the Multnomah County
S heriffs Office, and the Portland
Police Bureau as well as in the field
with youth gang outreach.
“As we increase our role, we’ve
taken a much more active role in
working with other public safety
partners-not only police, but across
jurisdictional lines,” said Hendricks.
Park Rangers typically pair off
and patrol the 15 to 30 parks in their
quadrants, making rounds twice in
one shift. Rangers outside down­
town rove in vehicles while down­
town rangers cruise by bike.