Police Report Outlines Security Problems at Skate Park

The Menifee skate park, shown here before its May 2014 opening, has been the subject of numerous complaints from neighboring residents. Menifee 24/7 photo: Doug Spoon

A Riverside County Sheriff's Department sergeant assigned to special enforcement in Menifee provided a report to city officials Thursday, Sept. 17 regarding disturbances concerning the skate park in Audie Murphy Ranch Sports Park.

Speaking before the Menifee Parks, Recreation and Trails Commission, Sgt. Sam Morovich said police recorded about 150 calls regarding the skate park between January and August. Of those, he said, about 100 of the calls were "proactive" patrols in which police made routine checks of the area. Most of the other approximately 50 calls were "general disturbance" calls, primarily made by residents of the neighborhood surrounding the park at Newport Road and Lone Pine Drive.

"Many of these concerned an argument, someone pushing and shoving, or a resident who didn't like how a skater was parked in the neighborhood," Morovich said. "We did receive about 12 assault calls. How you interpret 'assault' in those cases is open to interpretation."

Although no major crimes have been reported concerning the skate park, which opened in May 2014, police and city officials have received many complaints regarding vandalism and "minor assault," Morovich said. This resulted in 15 arrests for offenses related to drugs, alcohol or warrants. He added that some complaints were reported to City Council members and not police, which hampered police response in those situations.

On Aug. 19, the Menifee City Council approved spending $175,000 on video surveillance cameras with recording capability and motion sensors; extended fencing; and a timer gate control. When asked on Thursday whether he felt increased police or other form of manned security presence is necessary to supplement those security measures, Morovich pointed to several factors.

"Our goal is to focus on prevention, but it is not to use our resources just to watch kids skate," he said. "We hope the gates and video surveillance will prevent the problems. Besides those things, I would suggest signage warning people and asking people to call 911 to report problems.

"The skate park was created for kids to have a fun outlet. I believe 99.9 percent of the people who go there use it for that. It's the other .1 percent we have to worry about."

Parks Commissioner Thomas Giedroyce told Morovich the commission had previously discussed posting an unpaid "docent" -- perhaps a volunteer Crime Watch member -- at the location. Hiring a private security firm to guard the area has also been discussed.

Echoing previous statements by Community Services Director Robert Lennox, Morovich cited the cost factor in providing a paid security officer and liability issues to the city for either paid or volunteer guards.

"A third party security company doesn't come cheap," he said. "Sometimes other parks do utilize those services. But the issue is, once you put a representative there to babysit, you now make yourselves liable."

Lennox said a proposal from a contractor used by some local skate parks had a price tag of about $200,000 yer year for on-site security. In addition, he said, he was told by a city official in Lake Elsinore that two parks there had discontinued manned security because of liability concerns.

Commissioner Bill Zimmerman noted that although the Audie Murphy Skate Park has signs prohibiting the use of bikes inside the park, recent legislation signed by Gov. Brown bans cities from prohibiting bikes in those facilities. Bikes are a common site inside the skate park.

In response, Lennox said "that law expands the indemnification to cities to include any wheeled item. Right now, our skate park is still posted as 'skates only.' We haven't done anything to change that. Our experience has been that the equipment out there is being worn down quicker by the BMX bikes with trick pegs."

The report was received by the commission with no formal action taken. The increased fencing and video surveillance cameras are due to be installed and in service by next March, Lennox said previously.

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