Richmond’s parks and recreation department will conduct a review of the Jan. 19 shooting of an urban park ranger on Belle Isle to determine “additional safety precautions” that should be taken to protect rangers and the public, a department spokesperson said. 

That after-action review will examine “further policies, procedures, and safety equipment” that may be needed for the urban park ranger program, according to Tamara Jenkins, a spokesperson for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. 

The ranger, who has not been identified, survived the shooting. Officials say he was wearing his own bulletproof vest at the time. 

Jenkins said the urban park rangers had been fitted for city-provided bulletproof vests on Jan. 14, five days before the shooting, and the vests “are currently being procured.” 

Richmond’s urban park ranger program is fairly new: It was first funded in the city’s 2022-23 budget, and rangers began patrolling in 2023. Their territory includes all Richmond parks but focuses in particular on the 600-acre James River Park System that bisects the city. 

At the time of their creation, rangers were viewed more as park ambassadors than police, intended to patrol the parks, interact with and respond to calls from park users and enforce city code. They receive training in CPR, wilderness first aid, incident de-escalation, emergency vehicle operation, wildlife rescue, swiftwater and Narcan administration and are encouraged to attend crisis intervention training programs hosted by the police, according to Jenkins.

“These rangers will not be armed, but will work with the Richmond Police Department,” former Mayor Levar Stoney said in 2022, according to WTVR. “The goal is to educate and ensure park guidelines are followed, such as having no littering or fireworks or unleashed dogs, so these valuable community assets remain safe and enjoyable for all who use them.” 

Jenkins said the city is “still working through the legal process for these positions to have the ability to issue citations.” 

Whether or not park rangers should be considered a form of law enforcement is a long-running debate nationwide, and the answer varies from location to location. 

The National Park Service has both law enforcement rangers who act as park police and are armed and non-law enforcement rangers who have interpretive and educational roles. Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation employs roughly 100 law enforcement rangers who police the state’s parks and natural heritage areas.

Urban park rangers face a somewhat different set of challenges because of their environment. While they often cover less physical ground than their state and national counterparts, their territory tends to be more intensely used, and the higher concentrations of crime found in cities can frequently spill over into parks. 

Nevertheless, many cities have been reluctant to arm urban park rangers, particularly in the aftermath of the nationwide protests over policing that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Firearms have been prohibited in all Richmond parks and municipal facilities since 2020. While City Council first passed an ordinance to bar them from these areas in 2019, it could not go into effect until the Virginia General Assembly passed a law the following year giving local governments the authority to prohibit guns in certain public spaces. 

Law enforcement officers are exempt from the firearms ban.