Private security patrols continue
6-month pact to watch over local parks after hours will cost the city roughly $30,000 a month
San Bernardino will pay a private security company $30,000 a month to continue patrolling several parks after hours.
Such a presence in those spaces began in May after the city did a pair of massive park cleanups.
With armed security around from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., crime decreased in parks and in community center spaces, city officials reported last week.
As a result, parks have seen a 300% increase in usage compared with this time a year ago.
“People are automatically attracted to green space,” parks Director Lydie Gutfeld said by phone Friday. “With security overnight, we’re able to have a clean start in the morning. People feel safe enough to go to our parks when we open up.”
Pool usage and pickleball activity, in particular, have skyrocketed these past few months, Gutfeld added.
“When you talk about safety and intended uses of a park,” she said, “people don’t realize most nonintended uses happen in nonoperational hours.”
City leaders approved the new pact with San Bernardino-based Redwood Security on Wednesday.
The company “has proved effective in not only helping to secure our parks by closing gates, making sure patrons were not trespassing after park operational hours,” city officials reported, “but also by providing a presence and enforcing the city’s municipal codes with the ability to city as needed.”
Redwood presently patrols Meadowbrook, Seccombe Lake, Perris Hill, Wildwood and Encanto parks, as well as Pioneer Cemetery, Court Street Square and Norton Gymnasium.
Officers provide daily patrol reports identifying hot
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