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As a lifelong hiker and nature enthusiast, I deeply respect the work of our dedicated park rangers and I’m grateful for their presence in our beautiful Regional Parks. There’s a lot of misinformation about the proposed amendment to park ranger status, which would change our park rangers from “Peace Officers” to “Public Officers.” I’d like to address that proposed change and clarify why I support an expanded, holistic approach to law enforcement in our Regional Parks and rural communities.
First of all, our park rangers will continue to keep folks safe in our Regional Parks. We are not proposing eliminating park rangers! Currently, rangers’ primary tools for enforcing park rules are education, warnings, and administrative citations. The proposed transition from “Peace Officer” to “Public Officer” will not change their ability to issue citations. According to the ordinance presented to the Board of Supervisors, “The Director of Regional Parks and any person designated by the Director as Public Officers, including Park Rangers, shall have the authority to issue citations for misdemeanors for violations of the laws of California and County ordinances when committed within a County of Sonoma Park and within the Public Officer’s presence.” Public Officers will also be authorized to arrest individuals for misdemeanors.
In other words: we are not eliminating park rangers or their enforcement abilities. With this change, we actually aim to hire more rangers. Currently, we have a 45% vacancy rate in our park rangers, partly due to the loss of local training for Peace Officer status. SRJC’s training program closed in 2020, forcing aspiring park rangers to seek expensive out-of-state training.
There has also been concern expressed that we are “dumbing down” park rangers. I disagree strongly with that characterization. As Public Officers, park rangers will still have access to hi-lo sirens, assist with evacuations, enter disaster areas, and issue citations. Salaries and benefits will not change. This proposal clarifies the ranger’s primary role as educational and informational, while Sheriff’s deputies will handle situations requiring escalated responses — like domestic violence calls or incidents involving firearms. Deputies’ training exceeds that of Park Rangers as Peace Officers and they are already called to respond to escalated situations on Parks property. But please don’t think your Public Officer park rangers will be underprepared! Entry-level training for the job will still include more than 300 hours on topics such as emergency medical response, strategic communications, customer service, de-escalation tactics, water and wildfire safety, defensive driving, public safety coordination and other skills applicable to the county park ranger job series.
Currently, park rangers do not carry guns, cannot arrest and transport suspects, and are not part of the 911 emergency dispatch system. For public safety in our unincorporated Sonoma County Regional Parks, we need the assistance of Sheriff’s deputies. Unfortunately, Sheriff’s deputies are few and far between in West County. Our coastal deputies respond to calls over a large territory, and the Guerneville substation covers urban and rural areas. Deputies do their best but often face situations where backup is half an hour or more away. We need additional deputies to enhance public safety, support officer safety, and allow more community-oriented policing in our small towns.
To this end, on next week’s agenda, you’ll also find an item that creates a new Parks Bureau within the Sheriff’s office. Funded by Regional Parks and operationalized by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Regional Parks and the Sheriff’s Office, we plan to hire four new deputies and a sergeant who will be focused on enhancing public safety in our Regional Parks system. Unlike park rangers, these deputies will also be part of the 911 emergency dispatch system and will be available as mutual aid for non-Parks-related incidents as well.
Long story short: I love our park rangers. My goal is to fill the ranks of our park rangers and bring more law enforcement to our rural parks. I want to make our Regional Parks safer, and believe that we have a holistic strategy on next week’s agenda to accomplish that goal. The Board of Supervisors will vote on both these items — establishing a Parks Bureau within the Sheriff’s office, and the change to park ranger status — next Tuesday.
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