Louisville officials are asking Metro Council to make the park ranger program an official police force.
The city created the park rangers in 2024, in response to residents’ concerns about safety in public parks. Currently, the program only has one employee: Chief James Brown. Rangers are considered “special police” under state law. Although they have the power to investigate and arrest people suspected of breaking the law, they don’t get the same benefits that a “lawfully organized police department” would — namely, access to training and grants.
Brown said last week that lacking that official designation for the park ranger program has hindered officer recruitment. He’s currently looking to hire a full-time officer or two part-time officers.
“All it is is trying to get some regulatory things so this agency will be in line with any other law enforcement agency at its creation,” Brown said.
The ordinance being considered by Metro Council would establish the Louisville Park Police. It spells out the standards new recruits would have to meet — basic academy completion and ongoing training — and would make park rangers “police officers” under state law.
The changes would allow the city to access money from the Kentucky Law Enforcement Foundation Program Fund, which provides a $4,500 per year stipend for each officer, as well as grant programs for equipment.
Most importantly, Brown said, becoming a full-fledged police department will allow park rangers to access training administered by the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council. Those trainings would allow rangers to maintain their POPS, or Peace Officer Professional Standards, certifications, which are required to be a police officer in Kentucky.
“Several people who’ve applied retired from law enforcement, including agencies even within this city, but it had been a couple years,” Brown said. “We haven’t been able to get those trainings back where they need to be.”
Brown said even his own law enforcement certification would become inactive in about a year if he doesn’t get access to the training. With their current status as “special police,” Brown said they also wouldn’t be able to send new recruits to a training academy.
‘It’s not enforcement first’
Some Metro Council members are hesitant about turning the Park Ranger Program into a police force.
During the Democratic Caucus meeting on Sept. 25, some representatives, like District 8’s Ben Reno-Weber, expressed concern that it may change the focus of park rangers.
“I get that we need to have a dedicated resource for the parks because LMPD doesn’t respond in the parks or they don’t want to,” Reno-Weber said. “I do think that there’s some distinction that is valuable, even if it’s a little bit semantic in this case, because they do have police power.”
Reno-Weber said he appreciated that Brown, up to this point, has approached his job with a community engagement focus, rather than a law enforcement one. He said Brown was asked to help with issues at Big Rock in Cherokee Park and he found him to be “very thoughtful, respectful” and understanding.
“I hope that’s the organization he’s trying to build, at least that’s the words he’s saying,” Reno-Weber said. “I don’t think this helps that.”
District 6 Council Member J.P. Lyninger said his colleagues criticized him for saying the Park Ranger Program was “cops in parks,” but that’s exactly what this change would do.
Other Democrats defended the ordinance, saying sworn officers are needed to address some things that happen in public parks. And they argued park police can do that, while an understaffed Louisville Metro Police Department can’t.
For his part, Brown said the changes outlined in the ordinance are mostly technical. The Louisville Park Police would continue to report to the Department of Parks and Recreation, not LMPD.
“We are clearly identifiable as something different,” he said. “The uniform, the cars are not the same.”
Brown said park rangers have to be sworn officers to make arrests when it’s necessary. But he said making parks safe and accessible continues to be the main goal.
“It’s not enforcement first, it’s park safety first,” Brown said. “It’s meeting those people who are there on a daily basis and building a rapport with them, a partnership. They’re the ones who are here using the park correctly and they don’t want people misusing it.”
Brown said having an agency focused solely on the city’s roughly 125 public parks will allow rangers to spend more time with people who may have had bad interactions with police officers and break down barriers.
Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, has also thrown his support behind the ordinance. Speaking to reporters at a press conference last week, Greenberg said it will help the city recruit “the best and brightest.”
The ordinance is sponsored by District 13 Republican Metro Council Member Dan Seum, Jr. and District 1 Democrat Tammy Hawkins, who are the chair and co-chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee. That committee took up the ordinance Wednesday afternoon. Members voted 6-0, with one member voting present, to send the legislation to the full council with a recommendation to approve it.
Residents who want to make their voices heard on this ordinance, or anything else of the agenda, can sign up to speak at the next Metro Council meeting on Oct. 16.
