FARGO – A new park police force is under consideration at the Park District, which the new district’s new executive director says is facing the same crime concerns that the metro area faces.

But Joel Vettel, a police lieutenant in Fargo until he took over the city’s park system a couple of weeks ago, said it’d be a one-person force, which will supplement not replace city police in Fargo’s parks.

As the acreage owned by the Park District and the number of park users grew, so have the calls to police, he said in an interview Monday, Sept. 12. After the Park Board voted in April to hire him, he said he began talking to the board and staff about the need for a security coordinator.

To make the most out of such a position, they thought to have him or her serve double duty as a law-enforcement officer, he said, and the only way to do that is for the Park District to start its own police department.

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“This is not a replacement to the Fargo Police Department,” he said. “The scope of what they have to offer is much broader than we can ever offer.”

Vettel’s proposal will go before the board at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Sept. 13, at Park District headquarters.

Vettel said he envisions the new park officer as an armed and uniformed officer not all that different than a city cop. In fact, he said he hopes to work out a deal with Fargo police to use the same equipment – the Park District will pay – and the same crime-reporting system. Fargo police would also provide the same training.

The park officer would patrol areas of special concern within the park system, such as Lindenwood Park, and at special events primarily in the summer when there are more people using parks. One of the reasons for the uniform is to show residents that law enforcement is present.

The idea came out of a review of manpower needs prompted by the park system’s explosive growth. It now stretches from the softball fields just southeast of Harwood to Orchard Glen in Fargo’s southeast corner with 2,165 acres, about three square miles, of parkland in between. That’s a 53 percent increase in acreage since 2005. Fargo’s population in that time is estimated to have grown 23 percent.

With that growth has been a growth in calls to police, such as park users reporting suspicious behavior, Vettel said, and it became clear that a security coordinator is needed.

“We’ve never had a person in-house that looks after and look at our safety and security needs,” he said, meaning someone to develop safety policies and procedures and to serve as liaison to city police.

Fargo Police Chief David Todd was out of town Monday and unavailable for comment. Todd has been the department’s chief since October 2015, when as interim chief Todd beat out Vettel and a third finalist from North Carolina for the position.

Vettel and other park officials also thought it would be helpful to have a position analogous to a school resource officer but for the parks, he said. After discussion with the state attorney general’s office and city police, he said, they realized that, for legal reasons, the position as envisioned would need to be held by a licensed peace officer. That would mean the Park District would have to have a police department, he said.

No other park system in North Dakota has its own police force, Vettel said, but it’s not uncommon in other states. Park staff reached out to park districts that did have such a force for advice, he said.

Vettel said the new position, which is in the Park District’s 2017 budget, would pay $45,000 to $50,000 a year, not including benefits.

But before he can make the hire, which he hopes to do in March, he said there’s a lot of heavy lifting to do. The Park District needs to have agreements in place to work with the Fargo Police Department and with the Red River Regional Dispatch Center, he said.

“Let’s say we make an arrest in the parks, how do we make sure that person gets to jail and the paperwork gets completed for the arrest?” Vettel asked.