Night patrol on Pima County’s loop is 3-month pilot program

The 137 miles of protected bike paths winding in a wobbly circle around Tucson, officially known as the The Chuck Huckelberry Loop, is a source of recreation, transportation and delight to thousands of residents.

Recently, USA Today named the loop the best recreational bike trail in the country.

But Pima County officials say the loop can also be the site of homeless encampments, vandalism, and occasionally harassment and other crimes.

“The Loop has also experienced challenges with misuse; resulting in safety concerns from patrons and staff members,” according to an Aug. 22 memo from Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher.

So the county has begun a pilot program to have two private security guards patrol the paths and their adjacent parks at night. The program will last three months before the county will evaluate its effectiveness.

John Stuckey, facilities safety and security manager of Pima County’s Parks and Recreation department, said the goal is to ensure the county’s parks and the loop “is safe and enjoyable for everyone.”

The new patrol effort is prompted by the ongoing incidence of “improper behavior” along the loop. “A lot of it is related to the homeless community but not exclusively so,” Stuckey said.

The county doesn’t have comprehensive numbers on the type and frequency of incidents because the paths and parks cross multiple agencies and locations. Stuckey said that police and sheriff’s department data is also hard to parse as they don’t specifically mark incidents as taking place in parks.

The “development of some data” is another one of the goals of the program, Stuckey said.

John Campbell, 62, moved to Tucson from outside Oklahoma City a couple years ago. He’s stayed in Salvation Army shelters occasionally, but says he has too much stuff for them to let him in.

Pinching a dwindling rolled cigarette with toenail clippers, Campbell spoke to Arizona Luminaria in the shade of an umbrella on a bench along the loop. Campbell said he spends a lot of time on the bike paths where there’s shade, as well as parks with water and bathrooms. He sleeps “wherever I find a safe place,” he said, and moves around a lot.

Campbell said he’s never had any real problems, but has seen other people struggling. “They just come around and smoke those blue pills in foil,” he said, referencing fentanyl.

“I don’t think it’ll make much difference,” he said about security patrolling the loop.

Officially, the loop closes at sunset. Which means that people like Campbell could face trespassing violations if they are sleeping on the loop. But Stuckey said that won’t be their focus. “That’s not our primary concern,” Stuckey said.

Being on the loop past sunset is technically against the rules. “Are we going to be stopping a cyclist? No,” Stuckey said.

Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott, of District 1, says they are trying the security guards to figure out what will work.

“The public expects us to take some kind of action,” Scott added. “For a problem as widespread as homelessness and its effects, there isn’t any silver bullet. You have to just try things.”

Not all community members, however, are convinced more security guards is the right approach.

“We’ve invested so much in [the loop] as a tool of recreation, not transportation, and it doesn’t have the numbers of people using it that would self-police through what Jane Jacobs calls ‘eyes on the street,’” said Kylie Walzak, transportation policy advisor to Supervisor Matt Heinz of District 2.

Jane Jacobs was a community activist who wrote about urban planning and design.

“It doesn’t usefully connect people using bicycles to daily destinations and so we shouldn’t be surprised that unhoused people use it for shelter, shade, respite from the heat and that they tend to congregate near park resources that have bathrooms and water,” Walzak added.

“I don’t think policing people trying to survive is the answer,” Walzak said.

Nightly patrols

Two private security guards from the company Vet-Sec Protection Agency , which have an ongoing contract with the county, began their patrols along the Rillito River Park on the night of Aug. 27.

Stuckey said the guards will be patrolling nightly there and along other paths and parks for the next three months.

The two guards received a one-day specialized training course, Stuckey said, which included portions on personal safety and deescalation tactics. The county’s Office of Housing Opportunities and Homeless Solutions also gave the guards a presentation.

The security guards are unarmed. Stuckey said he hopes they will soon be carrying Narcan, an easy-to-use drug that counters the effects of overdose from opioids.

“We’re getting them best prepared in these spaces,” Stuckey said.

Stuckey estimated that the county would pay about $12,000 per month for the two guards.

Jenna Majchrzak, the owner of Transit Cycles in the MSA Annex on Tucson’s west side just off the loop there, also questioned the approach.

“I don’t think getting private security is the answer,” Majchrzak said. “It’s just putting a bandaid on the problem.” The problem, Majchrzak said, is the lack of affordable housing.

“What the county needs to do is work on getting people off the streets and into housing. That is the proven remedy,” Majchrzak said.

Stuckey said he is empathetic of unhoused people camping along the loop.

“But it creates an unsafe environment,” he said. “We don’t want someone whizzing by on their bike at 30 miles per hour and crashing into someone who is camping out,” Stuckey said.

Harassment, vandalism and theft are other concerns, Stuckey said.

Majchrzak said that she has dealt with harassment while riding the loop. “As a single chick riding at dusk, yeah I’ve faced it,” she said.

Itayetzi Rubí runs an independent group that conducts workshops, reproductive health education, drug prevention, in efforts to “make mutual aid accessible to teens.” They said they often go to encampments on the loop to share hygiene supplies, snacks, socks, water, dog food, sometimes tents and tarps, as well as other supplies.

Rubí only wanted to share their middle name due to the sometimes sensitive nature of their work.

“People are struggling with constant sweeps,” Rubí said. “There’s very little access to water (few working water fountains, people often getting kicked out of convenience stores when trying to refill water), and hard to find bathrooms.”

Rubí is worried that security may result in yet another means of pushing people out of spaces.

“People are getting kicked out of everywhere and there’s nowhere left to go. Parks are off limits, washes, bus stations, libraries, even sidewalks, Rubí said. “Camping around the loop or in washes is where people are trying to live out of the way, and not be visible.”

Education and enforcement focus

The initial goal of the program is “education and rules enforcement,” Stuckey said.

He said the guards will be engaging in “educational opportunities” by connecting people with needs to services like crisis lines or, if necessary, law enforcement. “We recognize that people are in need.”

Stuckey said they chose security guards instead of social workers or people trained to work with unhoused people because “security guards have a similar mindset of law enforcement,” which he said is necessary to respond to possible emergencies and maintain safety.

“We’re very hopeful we can see some positive changes with time,” Stuckey said. “That we can reduce the total incidence of improper use and create safe spaces for all the users, including addressing other problems like homelessness and substance abuse, by getting them resources.”

Campbell sat on a picnic table bench under the noon sun, sheltered by an umbrella propped up by a makeshift sandbag. “I’ve got my radio, my Bible, that’s mostly how I pass my days,” he said.

Next to him was a shopping car loaded with blankets and a box of his possessions. On the table was a fly swatter and a tin can, as well as a large water bottle. Campbell said he wouldn’t mind security guards, and he mostly keeps to himself, “staying out of trouble.”

Would providing additional housing help? “Maybe,” Campbell said, shrugging, “but I don’t see it happening.”

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