by Michelle Mullen

Park advocates are celebrating the city’s decision to baseline funding for existing Parks Enforcement Patrol, or PEP, in New York City’s 2026 to 2030 Financial Plan —  locking in jobs that had previously relied on year-to-year funding, rather than adding new ones. Still, many say it falls short of addressing staffing shortages across the city’s green spaces.

For fiscal year 2027, $709 million of the adopted $125.8 billion budget was allocated to the New York City Parks and Recreation Department, according to the city. Of that, $14.4 million was baselined for parks department initiatives, including the annual addition of 100 PEP officers, 15 staff positions, GreenThumb community gardens and tree stump removal that were all previously restored one year at a time.

PEP officers are uniformed civilian peace officers employed by the city’s parks department. They patrol parks, enforce park rules, respond to quality-of-life complaints and address issues ranging from illegal barbecues and off-road vehicles to vandalism, permit violations and after-hours park use. A parks department spokesperson said $6.4 million of the baselined funding is dedicated specifically to PEP.

For years, said Christina Taylor, executive director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, advocates have argued the annual budget process made it difficult to recruit and retain officers.

“The baselining was a huge win, but it’s a very small drop in the bucket of what we need,” Taylor said. “This now means that instead of these PEP officers losing their jobs every year, we don’t have to go through this never-ending cycle of recruiting, training, getting people started and then starting all over again.”

Jodie Colón, founder of Stewards of Henry Hudson Park and a fervent parkland advocate, said although the baselined funding makes PEP positions more secure, it doesn’t address understaffing. Rather, it maintains the existing staff already stretched thin.

“It’s like if you sign a one-year lease, you have to keep renewing it every year,” Colón said. “Instead of it being something that has to be renewed every year, that has to be discussed, baselining puts it in automatically. But we don’t have enough officers, and it’s not adding any new positions.”

Colón also cautioned the change is not permanent protection against future cuts, noting that the administration can still reduce funding during difficult budget years. While both Colón and Taylor welcomed the funding, they said the Bronx still lacks the capacity to adequately patrol its parks.

“The fewer officers you have, and the farther away they are, quality-of-life things become triaged at a lower level,” Colón said, noting a spike in vandalism in Henry Hudson Park. “That’s really what people’s everyday experiences are.”

Bronx Community Board 8 and the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance have repeatedly called for a dedicated PEP command in Van Cortlandt Park, the third-largest park in the city at roughly 1,100 acres. A North Bronx command is currently based in Pelham Bay Park, the largest park in New York City, leaving officers to travel across the borough before responding to calls.

According to the parks department, there are currently four officers assigned to Van Cortlandt and Henry Hudson Parks, however they are also tasked with patrolling parkland across the board’s district and part of Bronx Community Board 7’s district.

“A lot of times when I call PEP, it takes them a good half an hour to get here,” Taylor said. “By the time they get here, whatever issue I was having and needed them to address is long gone.”

Deb Travis, chair of Bronx Community Board 8’s Parks and Recreation Committee, said PEP officers handle problems that often fall between routine park maintenance and police work.

“The thing that PEP does is that PEP enforces the park’s rules,” Travis said. “When you don’t have PEP enforcement, then you start to see negative use.”

She said additional officers and a west Bronx command would allow faster responses, while freeing the police department to focus on higher-priority calls.

“The idea of actually having the command in Van Cortlandt Park was simply to have basically an east-side Bronx command and a west-side Bronx command,” Travis said. “Certain parks like Henry Hudson Park are 45 minutes to an hour from Pelham Bay.”

That travel delay often leaves volunteers serving as the first line of defense against vandalism and other violations, according to Colón, who relies on volunteers to help care for Henry Hudson Park.

Taylor said making the PEP positions permanent is meaningful progress, but she will continue pushing the city to devote more resources to its parks.

“Having more PEP officers is not going to solve all of our problems, but it will definitely help things,” she said.

The parks department told The Press it is planning to add two additional officers to the North Bronx command, although there is currently no timeline. There is also a task force with additional staff that can be deployed when needed, according to a spokesperson for the agency,

The mayor’s office did not respond for comment by press time.

Keywords

Parks Enforcement Patrol,

PEP officers,

NYC Parks,

Van Cortlandt Park,

Henry Hudson Park,

Bronx parks,

New York City budget,

fiscal year 2027,

park safety,

Bronx Community Board 8,

Van Cortlandt Park Alliance,

park staffing,

Christina Taylor,

Jodie Colón,

Deb Travis,

parks funding