In Allentown, overcrowding and rule-breaking in city parks causes police to ‘spin our wheels’

Parks in Allentown have seen increases in overcrowding, littering, illegal swimming and alcohol consumption, issues that city residents, police and others are urging Allentown City Council to take action to address.

During a meeting Wednesday, city officials identified six parks — Canal Park, Fountain Park, Jordan Park, Trout Creek Park, Lehigh Parkway and Bucky Boyle Park — as having the most frequent issues and offenses.

“The focus should be how we make parks a safe place for everyone to recreate, knowing that they are really valuable,” said Mandy Tolino, Allentown’s director of parks and recreation.

Tolino presented short-term solutions that the city already has initiated, such as placing large trash containers and equipping more park rangers to educate visitors about park rules. However, some want City Council to get more involved.

Allentown resident Jim Spang called out the lack of enforcement, calling it “a direct assault to our community.” He added that a worst-case scenario would be “to stop people from entering their parks if they’re not from Allentown.”

Meanwhile, incidents at city parks are stretching police resources, officials said.

“It’s awful, and I feel bad. It takes two days for the parks department to even clean up the parks,” said Dave Benner, president of the Allentown Fraternal Order of Police. “‘What are you doing for the rest of the city?’ It needs to be safer for our guys, my guys, that I represent, the citizens and even people that come around the area.”

Allentown police Chief Charles Roca said the department has had 1,512 park-related contacts this year across the city’s 22 parks. Hundreds of tickets have been issued for park-related violations this year alone.

“I came to council when we talked about our budget priorities, about expanding funds for park enforcement. But it’s just not about the enforcement of it,” he said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The city does have a park sergeant for each police platoon who can order additional resources if action at the parks gets out of hand, but Roca said that issues occur even with a structured staff.

“When we came to this past weekend, the entirety of the third platoon, they assigned their [squad] to Canal Park to deal with about 700 people,” he said.

“It creates a situation where we don’t have the ability to cover all the parks, because we were dealing with multiple officers clearing out specific locations,” Roca continued.

Tolino said that park rangers will primarily focus on Canal Park on busy weekends because there is “only one way in and out.” Park rangers will look to count the number of cars parked in the park, to avoid surpassing capacity.

Benner added that other emergency calls may be neglected if police enforcement is dealing with an out-of-control park.

“That’s two and a half hours that no one’s going to answer your call when you call 911, because [police are] down here doing this,” he said, saying that it took such an amount of time to break up issues at Jordan Park just days ago.

Among the suggestions from the public was installing gates at city parks that could be closed to prevent trespassing after hours. None of the parks currently have gates, Tolino said.

“If you had gates, people wouldn’t be going in the lots,” Benner said. He met with Roca to discuss potential prices for gates, which they found range “from $2,500 to $3,000.”

“They’re not expensive, and city people can do it,” he continued. “Then these problems are greatly diminished.”

Scott Snyder, a former police officer in the city, cited the lack of law enforcement at Canal Park after dark without a gate present. He also mentioned several drug arrests that occurred at that park and fatal accidents over the past years. One time, he had to chase someone breaking laws on foot during off-hours at night, which almost resulted in a drowning.

“We can’t gate everything and fence everything, but seriously consider putting up the gates [in Canal Park],” he said.

City Council members and residents also expressed concern over how to properly staff officers at all of Allentown’s parks.

“It costs a fortune to staff each park with an officer,” council member Daryl Hendricks said.

Hendricks addressed the most recent fatal shooting in Allentown, which occurred in Fountain Park on a June weekend evening in which police were not present. Police eventually arrested the suspects after searching city cameras .

“Eventually it's going to happen,” he said of future crimes becoming a greater risk at parks without enforcement.

To better clarify the rules, Tolino said the city’s park and recreation authorities will look to improve signage.

“We’re getting big seasonal signs that are English and Spanish, not smaller ones that are more decorative,” Tolino said.

The city recently received a $50,000 grant that will help come up with a plan for capacity issues and overcrowding at Canal Park, Tolino said, in addition to addressing concerns related to emergency responses.

The city's parks and recreation department is also looking into a potential online software that would include a resident-only pass. Tolino said the city is "still figuring out the details." The resident-only pass would give residents priority access, and wouldn't limit the park to residents of Allentown.

Meanwhile, some residents and officials want City Council members to directly see the often chaotic scenes at city parks.

“All I get is, ‘We're working on something’. Nothing gets done,” Benner said of his communication with city officials. He encouraged city officials to “sit in the cop car and see it firsthand.”

Benner also said that if one park is closed due to crime or overcrowding, “all you’re going to do is push people from there to another park.”

“It has to be all collectively done at once,” he said of needed changes. “Otherwise we’re just spinning our wheels.”

“This is a collaborative issue, but this isn't just a police enforcement issue," Roca said. This is also a parks issue. This is a city of Allentown issue.”

Allentown, however, is not alone in facing issues in its parks. Recently, South Whitehall Township officials said they would increase police enforcement at Covered Bridge Park due to various “unsafe and unnecessary practices.”