Park Rangers join forces with Santa Cruz PD

More than half of the Parks and Recreation rangers will be reporting directly to the Santa Cruz Police Department starting next month.

The Santa Cruz Police Chief said the rangers will have the same responsibilities as before, but a different focus. He said the joining of forces is another way the department is trying to tackle the problems they’re seeing in Santa Cruz and increase communication.

“We’ll be able to focus them on the problems that the community has identified for us in terms of what effects their neighborhoods the most,” says Police Chief Andy Mills.

Several months ago, Santa Cruz PD rolled out a new policing strategy separating the city into 5 areas.

A team is designated to each region where people can report problems they’re seeing directly to the assigned officers.

Starting July 1st, the department is bringing on nine rangers to increase enforcement in the areas needing the most help.

Chief Mills said, “they’ll be assigned to the five areas of the city that we’ve already established, but what we’re looking for mostly is to make sure this is an established overall coordinated strategy to make sure there’s effective communication between the police, the park rangers and the community.”

There’s been some confusion about rangers being taken away from the downtown area, but Chief Mills says that isn’t the case.

“The reality is that we’re increasing the number of rangers in the downtown area by one. So we’re going from 4-5 and those rangers will be specifically targeted on the levees and the downtown area to really make sure it’s a safe beautiful environment for everybody,” said Chief Mills.

Carol Scurich, the Parks and Recreation interim director said she thinks the collaboration will only help build a safer Santa Cruz.

“We’ve got two departments that are dealing with enforcement and so when you have two supervisors the philosophy can be slightly different. You know what people are seeing is different, this way, in one place under the PD they’re looking at the larger picture and they get to really direct people into specific areas where the hot spots are,” said Scurich.

Chief Mills said another positive aspect of having the rangers working directly with the department is they can be part of the trainings the officers receive on a regular basis.

There are currently 13 rangers with the city’s Parks and Recreation department, starting July 1, nine will go over to the police department.

Four rangers will stay with parks and rec and continue to focus on parks and open spaces.