Pop quiz: What do you think a park ranger does?
"Take care of parks, does he not?"
"I think a park ranger takes care of the wildlife. I’m not sure if it’s more of the wild stuff or just like, you know, crime that is committed on parks, or fraud, or whatnot."
"I guess protect and serve?"
These were the guesses of Kylie Jones, Jake Black and Gillian Smith, who were recently out enjoying the waterfall and trails of Indian Mound Park near Cedarville.
That same day, the park was being patrolled by Officer Garrett Trout, a park ranger for Greene County Parks and Trails.
“So there’s several different types of rangers," Trout said. "Most people see interpretive rangers and that’s what we get associated with. So they’re like the people you see when you walk into a park and they introduce you and give you maps and tell you where to go and stuff like that."
"But what I’m in is the law enforcement side of it, so we’re more like a deputy or a city police officer, just within the park," he added.
Like his city counterparts, Trout wears a ballistics vest and body camera, and he carries a radio, taser and fire arm.
“We’re hauling about 30 pounds of gear,” he said, going over the different things strapped onto his body.
Trout patrols the trails, bike paths and waterways of the Greene County park system, which includes 26 parks, 50 to 70 miles of bike paths, and portions of the Little Miami River.
If he is not responding to calls, Trout will hike around two miles of trails every day.
“I do a lot of foot patrols, so I just walk the trails (and make sure) there’s nothing tampered with, or anybody doing drugs, or whatever else you can think of,” he said.
So for all of you smokers out there, just remember that even though it’s now legal to smoke weed in Ohio, it is still illegal to light up in the local and state park systems or drink alcohol.
“Or littering is a big thing too,” Trout said . “Here at the falls, we get people who jump off the waterfalls a lot, and we don’t allow that because a lot of people have gotten hurt from it so we are trying our best to prevent that.”
Recently Officer Trout other park rangers were involved in helping break up a crime ring that was doing "smash and grabs," where people would bust car windows and steal items from the vehicles.
Trout recalled a story from his first time at this park as a field training officer. He was standing on a hill overlooking Massey Creek, which runs through the park, with his boss.
The older park ranger was showing Trout the ropes and mentioned people liked to try and skinny dip in the creek. Trout didn’t believe him, since the park is so small and easily accessible.
Right at that moment they spied three people who were, indeed, skinny dipping in the park.
Trout recalled that the trio were embarrassed to be caught in the nude breaking the law.
Trout and the other officer waited for them in the parking lot, where the three were given a citation.
It’s things like that which make an average day never the same, Trout said.
“We’ve been to John Bryan a few times for broken ankles or broken legs, and helped people get out of there,” he said, describing the kinds of things he’s come across.
“Animal complaints, we get them all the time as well for (things) like rabid animals or deer with distemperment, stuff like that.”
Part of his job as a ranger expands into the surrounding communities to provide backup support for other law enforcement agencies if they are nearby.
“I’ve done it with Cedarville a few times. They’ve had domestic violence situations and I went in to help them. I was the closest backup for them,” he said.
“That shooting in Beavercreek, one of our other rangers responded to that at Walmart.”
Recently Trout and other park rangers were involved in helping break up a crime ring that was doing "smash and grabs," where people would bust car windows and steal items from the vehicle.
“That happens a lot in the parks just because your car is vulnerable while you're outside in the trails so they know you're a long ways out,"Trout said.
“Last year we found a part of a crime ring that was doing it and we traced them all the way to the bank. And one thing that was kind of crazy that they did was it was a man and he wore a wig and a dress and he made himself look like the owner of the vehicle of the card that he had," Trout recalled. "So he used her I.D. and got all the information he needed and got into her bank account with it.”
Being a part of that kind of detective work is one of his favorite things to do.
“Yeah, we have all kinds of stuff like that, but some of them are still pending in court so I can’t talk about ‘em,” he said.
“To just know that we are law enforcement,” Trout said.
But, “If you have any questions ask. ‘Cause a lot of people seem leery around us, like they’re afraid, but that’s not our goal. We’re here to help the community and be there for you guys.”
