Tempe revives park ranger program amid high rates of homelessness, safety complaints

Tempe is restoring its park ranger program after 13 years, amid rising complaints about unsafe conditions in parks, pervasive homelessness, and drug and alcohol related issues.

The initiative helped reduce disruptive or unsafe behavior in local parks throughout the aughts, which Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said "worked very well" at the time. But in 2010, the program was cut by city officials who were still reeling from the Great Recession and trying to make ends meet despite a $30 million budget deficit.

Park safety worsened in the years that followed, prompting city officials to hire a private security firm to patrol the most problematic of Tempe's 52 parks in 2019. That proved to be only a temporary fix, however, and park safety continued its decline after a brief upturn in 2020, hitting all-time lows across several metrics by 2022:

• Only 39% of residents reported feeling safe in city parks at nighttime during Tempe's 2022 community survey. For the surveys in 2020 and 2021, that figure was 60% and 44%, respectively.

• By last September, there were 104 emergency medical calls to Tempe parks for incidents related to homelessness that also involved drugs or alcohol in 2022. That monthly call rate was 70% higher than it was in 2020 and 61% higher than in 2021.

• By October 2022, there were 69 homeless-related Tempe 311 calls to areas around local parks that year. That shakes out to a monthly call rate that was 123% higher than in 2020 and 40% higher than it was in 2021.

A growing problem: Tempe homeless camps cropping up 40% faster since fall

Reviving the park ranger program this year is Tempe's answer to the problem. The city is spending about $1.2 million on 17 new rangers who will patrol all of Tempe's parks and preserves. They will issue citations for those who break the rules and work with other city departments — such as the police — to remove anyone causing more serious disturbances.

"It was requested by residents who said, 'we're seeing drug use or drug sales or things of that nature,'" Woods said. "Maybe it's a situation where you're seeing someone who was unsheltered, who was sleeping under a Ramada by a tree, and they need someone to help connect them with shelter services or other kinds of services."

"I think just the presence of the park rangers is going to be especially helpful," Woods added, "and it's going to provide a lot of additional peace of mind to our residents."

The rangers will be on duty every day of the week outside of a four-hour period between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. They won't carry guns and don't have the power to arrest or detain people. They are allowed to ticket those who violate Tempe's park codes.

If an incident becomes criminal, such as if someone starts threatening park users, the rangers will be a direct line to the police department. In other instances, such as when someone sets up camp and sleeps in one of the park facilities, the rangers might intervene and call Tempe's homeless services, the HOPE Team.

City staffers are still hammering out the day-to-day logistics, according to Tempe Community Services Director Craig Hayton, but they plan to prioritize parks based on the number of incidents.

That list will likely include the 11 sites that have accounted for more than 80% of the homelessness-related emergency medical calls to Tempe's parks over the past three years: Sixth Street Park, Birchett Park, Dayley Park, Esquer Park, Parque de Soza (formerly Hudson Park), Jaycee Park, Kiwanis Park, Moeur Park, Papago Park, Rio Salado Park and Tempe Beach Park.

"We recognize some (parks) are going to be busier than others and we may have a more routine presence in some areas," Hayton told The Arizona Republic. "We may be (around Town Lake) a bit more often than we are in some of the other parks."

Woods contends the ranger program is a step up from the existing security contractors, who weren't able to issue citations.

Plus, the new full-time city employees will do more than provide security. They'll offer general information for residents and will keep in touch with neighborhood leaders about what's happening on the ground.

Woods said the security contractor program will be phased out as the ranger program gets going this fall. City staffers are currently in the process of fielding ranger applications and will begin hiring qualified candidates within the next couple of months.

Tempe hasn't set up a way for residents to contact the rangers, but city spokesperson Savannah Harrelson said that when they "begin working in parks later this year, we will provide the community with information on how to contact them, whether that is through a dedicated phone number or via the Tempe 311 system."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe hopes park rangers will help combat park safety concerns