Park employees have a common-sense plan to make our parks safer. Today they met in Athens Park for a picnic table talk with representatives from the Community Coalition and Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas’s office.
As children played nearby, park employees presented their three-point plan for safe parks: better lighting, regular sheriff’s patrols and uniforms for park employees to make them a visible part of public safety.
SEIU 721 members have proposed standard uniforms as part of contract negotiations to improve services for the public. It’s all part of building a better LA County.
“What we’re proposing won’t cost a lot, but it will help us to be part of the public safety solution,” said Lila Johnson-Crenshaw, a park employee and member of the SEIU 721 bargaining team.
“Uniforms are a buffer between violence and safety. People see us, we get involved with the community, it’s a deterrent,” said Gerald Howard, equipment maintenance worker at the park.
Richard Fajardo, Supervisor Ridley Thomas’s public safety deputy, said uniforms were crucial to helping law enforcement tell park employees apart from other park patrons. “The first piece is to keep the parks safe, and the second park is to have programs to keep kids occupied,” he said.
Howard grew up in Watts playing at Willowbrook and surrounding parks. That’s where he found mentors who encouraged him to work for the County. Now he’s helping make the parks where he once played safer for the next generation.