My name is Brady Wise, I am the President of the San Antonio Park Ranger Association. As you may know, the Park Rangers are a law enforcement organization who's primary mission is to secure, protect and patrol the San Antonio Riverwalk, La Villita as well as all other city parks and park facilities. Our job is to provide a secure atmosphere for the 7 million tourists who visit San Antonio and the riverwalk, as well as to protect the local families who frequent San Antonio's Parks. The purpose of this email is to gain support for a proposed name change from Park Ranger to Park Police. As you may be aware, San Antonio is one of the last cities in Texas that still uses the Park Ranger name. This name causes confusion when dealing with the public. Many individuals mistake our officers for security guards, often creating hostile responses from individuals who refuse to cooperate with a "security guard." For this very reason all other major cities in Texas have adopted the Park Police name, to effectively reduce the possibility of minor situations becoming unnecessarily major. Many of our officers have been assaulted when merely attempting to identify individuals involved in altercations. For this reason we are asking for your support in persuading City Council to consider the officers safety, and rename the Park Rangers, Park Police. It should be noted that in recent conversations with the Austin, Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth Park Police departments, we were advised that the communities welcomed the change and felt more secure visiting Parks where a Park Police Officer was on patrol. It should be noted that this proposal is merely for officer safety and public awareness as park Rangers are already fully authorized state licensed Law Enforcemnt officers. Please support our proposed name change and contact your councilman to show your support. Thank you. Please email comments or questions to this email address. I would be happy to meet with anyone regarding this or any other park issues!
Sincerely,
Brady Wise
SAPRA President
By Brady Wise
Sincerely,
Brady Wise
SAPRA President
By Brady Wise
