Editoral on James River Park
Woodland Heights resident Andy Thompson of the RTD has an editoral addressing some of the needs of James River Park. One point was the recent $100,000 is not enough to address the growing needs.
The second step is policing. The James River Park needs a park police. At the very least, it needs regular patrols, bike patrols, preferably, from officers capable of riding the trails between the Nickel Bridge and Belle Isle.
White had high praise for the current police effort and presence in the park but agreed that the current approach is often inefficient.
“We would do much better if we had a couple of officers who really knew their stuff. Who really knew all the back trails, became familiar with where the crimes were, who were the criminals, just like a cop on the beat. There’s no reason we couldn’t do that. They might get special training. They might learn something about wildlife, river safety, fishing rules, so they would function at a higher level.”
A couple of park police officers won’t be able to handle policing the park’s 500 acres of mostly linear park with porous boundaries any better than it is policed now. There is no will to enforce park rules in any kind of meaningful way as it is. It also doesn’t help that many legitimate park users are also habitual scofflaws that persist in allowing their dogs to roam off-leash or regularly use the park after sundown (when it is closed).