Las Cruces introduces city park rangers

LAS CRUCES — Police Chief Jeremy Story introduced the Las Cruces Police Department’s first team of four park rangers Friday in a poignant location.

Story spoke from a podium at Young Park with an idyllic backdrop on a sunny day: Behind him sat the pond where several men were fishing, picnicking and walking with dogs. The park was also the scene of a deadly shooting last March that killed three teenagers during an unsanctioned car show where numerous risky behaviors were in evidence.

For issues involving vandalism or incidents of public intoxication, medical emergencies or inappropriate use of parks, the department said it is training park rangers to provide a safe presence while allowing the police department to allocate other resources to hazardous calls.

The park ranger program, like the team of police service aides that respond to car crashes and some other service calls, is intended to help the LCPD with calls that don’t require commissioned law enforcement personnel.

“A lot of departments across the country are civilianizing their police departments. They are trying to find every job that doesn’t require a badge and have a non-police officer do that job,” Story said. “We don’t have enough police officers. It’s hard to fill those spots … anything we can do to supplement that and still keep the same level of service, or higher, is a win.”

The city hailed the ranger program as “a proactive approach to public safety, community engagement and park stewardship” in a news release.

Story said 400 candidates applied for the ranger academy a year ago, but none of those applicants made it through a process with parallels to police academy screening: written and physical tests, oral interviews, comprehensive background checks, polygraph tests and drug screening. The academy runs for five weeks followed by field training.

“At the end of that first process, we ended up with nobody left standing,” Story said. Without changing the requirements, Story said they simply tried again, and the second try produced four park rangers who graduated in November: Jacob Arman, Crystal Holguin, Joab Lara and Brian Perez.

Their duty formally begins on Sunday in rotating shifts covering seven days per week, although not 24 hours a day.

“Their job is to help make people feel safe, help address concerns and provide education,” Story said, adding, “when necessary, they do have limited enforcement authority to help deal with those issues.”

That authority falls under the city’s parks ordinance, allowing them to issue citations although they cannot make arrests. Story added he is recommending amendments to the ordinance that would allow rangers to address additional matters such as accessible parking enforcement.

The rangers’ gear included radios, tasers, batons, pepper spray and handcuffs — but Story said the items were to be used for self-defense only. The rangers also wear body cameras.

Perez, 21, and Holguin, 22, both said they were interested in law enforcement careers and saw the ranger program and the training as good preparation for the police academy.

Yet Perez, who grew up in Vado, added that he wanted to help restore park scenes he remembers from childhood — “families eating, picnics, playing sports.”

“I always wanted to be in law enforcement,” Holguin, who hails from Anthony, said. “Help the families here, making sure everybody’s safe, protecting people, doing what I can in my position.”

Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.