WILMINGTON — Wilmington’s new ranger program at Greenfield Lake has been successful at getting people to stop day-drinking in the park, keeping dogs on leashes and helping visitors. But the amount of times police are called to the 250-acre grounds has barely changed.
Lone ranger Ben Rickman spoke Thursday morning about his first 10 months on the job. A Winston-Salem native and UNCW graduate, Rickman spent five years prior working as a ranger at a national monument in California before taking his post in Wilmington last December.
The city started its ranger program with the goal of improving the level of safety in the park. City spokesperson Jennifer Dandron noted the area was the crowning jewel of the city park system in the past. However, crimes there tainted its image over the years.
The park has seen assaults, robberies, sex crimes and even a body found in the lake in 2008. In July a man fleeing police jumped into the lake.
While Rickman was preparing to give the media a brief tour of the park and update on the program’s success, maintenance staff pulled up in a city truck and told Dandron there was someone sleeping on a bench under a shelter, which is against the rules.
Rickman spoke to the man in front of reporters, though they were asked to hang back to avoid intimidating the man,
“I know that gentleman,” Rickman said. “His name is Paul.”
“Once you develop a relationship with people, you can have those interactions, and this isn’t the first time. He knows the deal,” he added.
Rickman said he introduces himself as a “park employee” as to not intimidate people he interacts with. The ranger is not part of the city police department and carries no weapons. He said his most important piece of equipment is his cellphone.
Rickman gets to the park at 7 a.m., Monday through Friday, and by 3:30 p.m. clocks out. He frequents high-traffic areas and makes a full survey of the park’s 4 miles of trails. Time allowing, he will patrol other nearby parks as well. His main tasks are to make sure nothing is amiss, enforce rules and beautify the space as he is able.
Before his hiring, maintenance staff would sporadically enforce park rules.
Still, there is no enforcement after hours or on weekends. Dandron said the city plans to expand the program, though it has not hammered out specifics.
Overall, Rickman has engaged with more than 270 people since he started. His most common interactions are stopping people from using alcohol, responding to pet owners who don’t follow leash laws, and giving people information.
Rickman has had a major success the city touts: He found someone suffering a drug-induced seizure in the parking lot in August, called 911 and gave the victim CPR until help arrived. The person survived.
Between late December and March, Rickman made contact with 57 people. He confirmed that ceasing alcohol use in the park made up 21 interactions during that time frame.
Activity picked up between April and June with 94 contacts, though the number related to alcohol use dropped to only 14. His largest number of conversations during that period was providing information to people in the park.
While 122 contacts were made between July through September, Rickman did not have them organized by type of interactions. Though, anecdotally, he said, drinking offenses have continued to decline.
“We still have those issues from time to time, but that’s the biggest thing I think I’ve been able to reduce here,” Rickman said. “If someone’s drinking in public, nothing really good is going to come from that.”
His goal is to prevent behaviors that will result in law enforcement contacts.
However, the amount of times police are called to the park has barely dropped. Dandron provided a list of calls to the park from January through October for 2020, 2021 and 2022, roughly the same time period Rickman has been on the job this year.
PCD requested a list of calls broken down by time of day with the intention of seeing when the most calls happened, but was directed to submit a public records request to Wilmington Police Department. City requests can take up to four weeks to be fulfilled.
The number of calls for service is down to 74, compared to 77 in 2021 and 2020. The calls cover a long list of issues, from helping emergency workers, to doing wellness checks, handling crimes and picking up stray animals.
In some cases there have been improvements. There have been no reports of road rage at the park, compared to three last year, as well as no reports of indecency, drug use, stalking, theft, found drugs, threats, or chases.
Still, a long list of other offenses have popped up in their stead:
- One report of indecent exposure
- One weapon report
- Two incidents of accidental property damage
- Two reports of threatening suicide
- One drug overdose
- One report of harassment
- One report of a drug sale
- One report of a past vehicle theft
- One report of indecent exposure
- One report of an intoxicated driver
The biggest decrease in calls were traffic accidents that did not cause injuries. There were 16 in 2021 and only six so far this year.
Rickman said most of his interactions do not end with police involvement. He estimated he has called law enforcement to the park on a dozen occasions to ban repeat offenders. He also revealed he has not witnessed anything violent happen while he has been employed with the city.
The interactions usually start with him informing someone they are breaking the rules, followed up by a warning, telling them to leave the park for a day, and ultimately banning them if the behavior and ignoring the rules continues.
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