INVESTIGATIVE REPORT-Who’s Keeping You Safe in The Parks?

GULF SHORES Ala.
By Rick McCann

February 15, 2025

Have you ever thought about who provides security at our local parks? Or at the county or state parks in our area and nationwide?

Did you know that there are six different classifications of parks?

One of the key factors for people visiting and moving to our area is the beauty of the outdoors, the plentiful parks, trails, and of course the many bodies of water that provide an abundance of recreation to visitors and residents alike.

From wooded serene trails to the beauty along the rivers, streams, lakes, bay, and ocean, there are no shortages of places to camp, fish, walk or just be out in the middle of nowhere, to be with mother nature.

Here in Baldwin County, there are city parks, county parks, and several state parks just steps away from where we live and work. You might even say that we’re the envy of many because of the natural beauty that surrounds us.

But how much do you know about our parks? Have you ever considered what type of security was being provided for those beautiful but often secluded areas?

Have you ever been walking through one of those parks early in the morning or as the sun was going down and thought that you heard something or someone close by? Or maybe you even thought that you might’ve been followed?
Have you ever checked your cellphone signal before beginning your journey into a local park or looked around to see if there were any security cameras, or a park ranger patrolling around, or other security features that might prevent a crime there?

Parks are owned or operated by one of at least six different entities.

These classifications include City, County, State, and Federal governments including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and there are a variety of parks such as recreation areas, amusement parks, zoos, and wildlife sanctuaries that are owned and operated by corporations.

All of these provide different levels of security for their visitors and staff ranging from “passive” measures to the comprehensive multi-faceted forms of protection.

Over the years, cities across the country have added green space to their communities to get more people outside,  enjoying the amenities that the area has available.
These parks often offer walking and bicycling trails, children’s playgrounds, picnic areas and sometimes even lakes that are stocked and ready for local anglers.

Safety in our parks these days is a rising concern, especially for those parks offer miles and miles of trails and acres and acres of woodlands where users are often off the beaten path and out of view of most people.

In recent years, crime in our nation’s parks has increased, from property crimes and robberies to rapes and homicides.

Some metropolitan parks employ park rangers or security guards and they sometimes have park police. Some parks also use a network of security surveillance cameras that sometimes are monitored by a park office or police dispatch center.

But what type of security is provided in our nearby parks and who provides it?

In Baldwin and Mobile Counties, city parks have mainly “passive” security measures in place, no assigned security guards, rangers, or park monitors though local police sometimes patrol through the parks during their shift, and local law enforcement will also respond when to the park for a 911 call or other emergency on park property according to local law enforcement officials.
Police said that they are occasionally assigned to a special event, and provide overwatch during the hours of that event but that is rare.
A few passive surveillance cameras can also be found in some of our area parks and they are not routinely monitored and are in place to “memorialize” and document an incident to be reviewed at a later date.

Alabama ranks 44th in the United States for violent crime per 100,000 population with crimes ranging from theft to assault reported in our parks annually.
However, we checked with our local park systems on both sides of the bay and exact figures of crimes occurring in our parks were not available and park representatives did not respond to our questions about park security.

Although rare, homicides and sexual assaults have also occurred in Baldwin County parks.

 According to a recent crime statistic, a crime occurs every 1 hour, 1 minute (on average) in Baldwin County.
The rate of crime is much lower than the average US county. Baldwin County is in the 89th percentile for safety, meaning 11% of counties are safer and 89% of counties are more dangerous. This analysis applies to Baldwin County’s proper boundaries only and many areas of the county are unincorporated, and those crime statistics were not included in this analysis.
The rate of crime in Baldwin County is 35.16 per 1,000 residents during a standard year. People who live in Baldwin County generally consider the northwest part of the county to be the safest.
Your chance of being a victim of crime in Baldwin County may be as high as 1 in 8 in the southwest neighborhoods, or as low as 1 in 39 in the northwest part of the county.

However, crimes occur nationally more frequently when an opportunity presents itself such as in a low density. Walking trails, parks, and other secluded areas with low lighting, heavy wooded cover, or few people around could be a prime location for crimes to happen.

While Baldwin County is nationally ranked with a B rating for violent crime occurrences, Mobile County in 2023 was ranked with a D rating, with robberies, assaults, and homicides occurring at a much more frequent rate.

In general, our local parks are mostly safe, but crime, especially violent crime, is on the rise nationally and can happen anywhere and at any time.
Criminals look for soft targets, easy marks, and people who are not aware of their surroundings and who are not focused on what’s happening in their midst.
People wearing headsets or talking on the phone for instance are more engaged in what they are doing and do not notice who is around them, or what’s happening nearby or even who might be following them.

According to recent reports, there is growing concern about a rise in violence occurring within local, state, and federally owned parks, with studies showing that certain urban parks, particularly those in disadvantaged or upscale neighborhoods, are experiencing increased incidents of violent crime, potentially due to factors like poor surveillance, lack of maintenance, or social issues within the community surrounding the parks.

One of the key elements found in the increase was that most parks do not employ any physical forms of security, such as security personnel, park rangers, or electronic surveillance, which creates an almost perfect environment for criminals to prey on park visitors and flee before police could arrive.

Other factors include parks with inadequate lighting, secluded areas, and limited visibility can contribute to higher crime rates.
An increase in gang activities with children participating in violent crimes has also added to the noticeable crime uptick in small communities, rural neighborhoods, and big cities alike.
Violence among children as young as eight years old is becoming commonplace nationwide. Teens engaged in carjackings, robberies, and murder is more than just a TV show, it’s reality.

At this time, security in our local parks has mainly been left up to the user to be proactive and security aware while enjoying the outside world.

In Part Two of “Who’s Keeping You Safe in the Parks?”, we will include our area county and state parks and see what level of security is provided there.

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