750 PARKS 



1. Inadequate general finances for maintenance. 



2. Necessity of sometimes having to pay lower salaries than the city 

 police are paid, causing ultimate dissatisfaction among the men. Oftentimes 

 there is no plan of benefits in case of injury or death or no plan of pen- 

 sioning on retirement. This may make the service so unattractive as to 

 fail to draw good men. In some of the best organized park police systems 

 in this country both a system of benefits and of pensioning have been adopted. 



3. The seasonal character of park activities renders it very difficult, 

 if not almost impossible, to carry a full force the year round. 



In spite of these, and possibly other difficulties not mentioned, it is 

 highly desirable that every park department which can possibly arrange to 

 do so have its own park police or guards. This suggestion is made not so 

 much from the standpoint of the mere enforcement of rules and regulations 

 or laws and ordinances as from the standpoint of the social leadership 

 values involved in having a carefully selected and trained guard service. 

 Next to the trained recreation activities staff a carefully selected and trained 

 force of park guards might, without doubt, become the most important 

 group in the entire department in the guidance and leadership of the people 

 in the use of the properties and facilities. To realize this desirable possi- 

 bility is hardly possible under any other method. 



SELECTION OF PARK GUARDS 



There are two general methods by which park guards are selected. 

 The first method is direct appointment by the chief executive of the depart- 

 ment subject to the authority of the park governing authority or a standing 

 committee on park guards, in the case of a park board or commission. 

 The second method is selection of guards from a certified civil service list. 

 In the case of those few departments where the guards are provided by 

 the regular police department but under the direct supervision of the chief 

 executive of the department, after the detail is made up, the selection is 

 made by the chief of police of the regular city department. 



Some park executives and park governing authorities prefer the first 

 of these two methods for the reasons that they feel better selections can 

 be made by direct examinations and personal contacts with applicants, and 

 that if a poor selection has been made the undesirable guard or guards can 

 be readily discharged. Moreover, the guards must always look to the 

 governing authority and the chief executive of the department for their 

 tenure of service rather than rely upon the protection of some outside 

 department of the municipal or county government, thus making for more 

 unity in the Park Department as a whole. However, practically every one 

 of these objections is in a measure met by the civil service regulations. 



