LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With about 20 years of experience in law enforcement, James Brown is ready to step into his new role as chief park ranger for Louisville Parks and Recreation.

What You Need To Know

  • Louisville is reintroducing a park ranger program in hopes of making residents feel safer and lowering crime 

  • James Brown is the new chief park ranger and brings 20 years of law enforcement experience 

  • He is looking to hire two more park rangers with law enforcement experience and an interest in the outdoors

  • All park rangers will be armed, in uniform and have marked cars 

“I grew up around Iroquois Park and spent quite a bit of time there as a child, so I have a connection to the parks," Brown said. "I wasn't ready to be finished with law enforcement, so this was an opportunity that came available to me that I thought would be a great thing to take my training and experience and bring it into a new opportunity for me." 

He will be overseeing the city’s park ranger program, a program that used to exist back in the 1970s. The program will put armed, deputized rangers in city parks in hopes of boosting safety and cutting down on crime.

“The vision and the goals for it are to increase the perception of safety within the parks and security, so it's going to be focused solely within those parks,” Brown said.

When the program was announced in Oct. 2024, Mayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, said some residents had expressed concerns about safety and security at parks.

"I believe this is a crucial step toward increasing positive activation of our public spaces and reducing incidents of misuse of our parks, including acts of vandalism, illegal dumping and unlawful activities,” Greenberg said in a statement.

“I think it's a great opportunity to get people who may not have been using them, for whatever reason, a renewed sense of safety and security; we want to make sure that the parks are available for everyone to use and that everyone who is using them is using them basically at their intended purpose,” Brown said.

This will involve identifying specific parks to focus on and being visible to people at those parks.

“They are armed, uniformed, such as myself, who have marked vehicles, and it is a full-service law enforcement agency,” Brown said. “They will be able to deal with anything in the park as far as necessary enforcement we can do ourselves and don't have to rely on the assistance of LMPD.”

The next step is to hire two part-time park rangers who also have experience in law enforcement and an interest in being outdoors. Depending on how the program goes, Brown said that it could expand beyond three rangers in the future.

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