New Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun said he's starting to get his feet under him in the first 100 days. Now, he returns to one of his top promises from the campaign trail – public safety.
From the mayors’ office at City Hall in downtown Rapid City is a pristine view of Memorial Park and the banks of Rapid Creek – but it’s not quite the idyllic green space the new mayor envisions.
Salamun said he’s beginning to workshop a ‘park ranger’ program for Rapid City’s 1,700 acres of green space.
“When we were down 34 police officers, one of the things I did as a council member is talk to our police chief asking what can we do because I was getting a lot of complaints from my constituents about illegal activity in the park," Salamun said. "We got to talking about the ambassador program downtown, and how we have people able to be eyes and ears to anything that might be wrong."
Salamun said he wants to these rangers to have at least some law enforcement authority.
“Could we pilot a program where we have city park rangers – uniformed with code enforcement authority – to patrol our parks and make sure that people feel safe, maybe even deterring behavior because they’re uniformed?" Salamun said. "Everybody can enjoy our parks – we just don’t want illegal behavior happening in our parks.”
This proposal comes at a crossroads for law enforcement across the nation – and just weeks after a march closed a downtown Rapid City block in protest of policing in the community.
Salamun said he doesn’t want to see any one group policed more than any other.
“I think when you’re talking about public safety its for everybody’s benefit," Salamun said. "I want their relatives to be as safe as mine - but it’s out of compassion. You could just say ‘you know what, ignore it and it’ll just go away,’ but out of compassion they’re going there because there’s people being victimized.”
After adopting a tough-on-crime campaign stance, Salamun says victim support will be a key focus in his term. The park ranger program is still in early development and would require the support of city council.