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Park Rangers & You


Pillsbury

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I reeeeeally like SAPR. They're super cool and it's always a pleasant experience to come across them in-game.

 

My character is a part-time hunter and frequents the forests quite often to hunt game and he has bumped into SAPR units patrolling said wilderness a lot of times. It has actually helped me shape some key points of my character's thoughts and opinions over the course of a few weeks due to our IC interactions.

To be honest, I subconsciously promised myself to never join any LEO faction in GTAW when I joined the server but SAPR was the first, in 4 years, to actually make me change my mind. The character I'm trying to portray just fits the Ranger's mindset too perfectly. That isn't to say I WILL attempt joining if the opportunity ever arises, but I'm very tempted to.

 

Keep it up, guys. Your RP is amazing.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So with this faction now having roots, I’d like to address some complaints.

 

Why does the faction focus more on its law enforcement actions far more than it being a Ranger service?

 

I’ll explain, the Ranger service in the US is probably one of the most unique in the world, and it can generally be described as the only emergency service in wilderness. As such, you have way more than just Law Enforcement rangers.

 

Civilian rangers, and yes they’re called Rangers too, are made up of Park Maintenance specialists, search and rescue teams, ecologists, animal guides, and park adminstrators.

 

They make up a ratio of 10:1 to law enforcement rangers on any State or National Park.

 

Law enforcement rangers in comparison are /lightly/ armed. They were mostly given firearms in the 80s to combat weed traffickers and in the very rare occurrence, shoot at bears or moose. In California specifically every law enforcement ranger carries a standard sidearm as they have full law enforcement powers /on/ state parks. Think of it this way, a Border Patrol agent can only enforce his federal law enforcement powers a hundred miles near the border, and no where else.

 

For reference, CSP had a shooting in 2019:

 

https://cslea.com/2019/06/state-parks-peace-officers-respond-to-shots-fired-at-pfeiffer-big-sur-state-park/

 

Now with that all listed, my question is, why is the Ranger faction armed to the teeth with rifles, focusing more on patrols than staffing ranger stations in Mt Chiliad and encouraging hiking, and hiring more peace officers than civilian rangers?

 

As someone who enjoys county roleplay, and has wanted a Ranger faction since 2019, I’m grossly disappointed.

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37 minutes ago, KinnyWynny said:

Now with that all listed, my question is, why is the Ranger faction armed to the teeth with rifles, focusing more on patrols than staffing ranger stations in Mt Chiliad and encouraging hiking, and hiring more peace officers than civilian rangers?

 

As someone who enjoys county roleplay, and has wanted a Ranger faction since 2019, I’m grossly disappointed.

 

As an ex-member (and if you look at the faction thread, one who was particularly invested in the ecology and the Park aspect of the Park Rangers, I can shed some light from my experience. Mind you, I was a member for around three months after the first Academy, so my opinions only reach that far, and don't represent what might've developed afterwards. This goes with no ill will towards SAPR as a faction, because members there who met me know that I was nothing if not passionate for the concept (I am currently aiding in revamping many aspects from the ground up and sharing materials to promote some of the things you brought up), and this post is presented as a perspective from a side that agrees with your points:

 

Internally, the Law Enforcement Ranger side was pushed heavily since the start: it's the only part that was fully constructed and ready to go when the faction launched. Many of us fought internally to promote the civilian and Park Maintenance aspects, but the faction had not developed any aspects of Park life other than enforcing of the HAPA ("hunting laws", to put plainly), and a few token aspects like the delimitation of categories of State Parks and State Forests, etc. When people joined, it was prioritized that they learn how to be LEO Rangers, and no park duties were really forced on them other than fighting crime.

 

This, along with other aspects (a very militarized Academy, and an FTP system prioritizing LEO aspects of the work exclusively) constitute, in my opinion, one of the fundamental factors as to why SAPR developed that way. Civilian positions were available, but non-LEO Rangers were left to develop their RP exclusively on their own terms, with no guides, no regulations, no visible leadership and no real guidance as to how to promote visits, how to engage with the community (which was always seen as the focus of the Public Relations Rangers and took a backseat in the life of the average member). This area stagnated and new recruits didn't last long.

 

There was also a clear cultural separation in the faction internally, and those of us more invested in the ecology, conservation and the pedagogic aspects of being a Park Ranger were simply vastly outnumbered, and left to RP to our own desires, which we did for the most part until we all slowly decided to leave due to a variety of factors (in my case, I felt like I was pushing for ideas that were of no interest to the core of SAPR, like writing guides on pest control, tree diseases etc. to have passive RP inside of parks, while others wished they had more jurisdiction outside of parks, to broaden their police capabilities).

 

People who met Joseph Torres, my character, may have often seen me on foot patrol, or coming to help with any Animal Control related issues, teaching the community as a Tongva native about the culture of his people, and chatting with hikers and hunters. After reaching the rank of Senior Ranger, I left the faction having made a total of zero arrests, and having issued a total of zero fines, after some fantastic RP with the county community.

 

We're currently working on this, as I said. I don't know if I'll be back in the faction, but I'm currently collaborating with several of the current members of SAPR to revamp the entire Academy process and give a big focus to the forests and Parks. In my mind, the SAPR identity should be the antithesis to the "edgier", bad boy vibe the SD has constructed IC (which is really cool, but that's their identity). To me SAPR should be a simple, mostly rural department, with passionate, kind people that want to promote the enjoyment and conservation of natural spaces, and are incidentally cops.

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24 minutes ago, Koko said:

 

As an ex-member (and if you look at the faction thread, one who was particularly invested in the ecology and the Park aspect of the Park Rangers, I can shed some light from my experience. Mind you, I was a member for around three months after the first Academy, so my opinions only reach that far, and don't represent what might've developed afterwards. This goes with no ill will towards SAPR as a faction, because members there who met me know that I was nothing if not passionate for the concept (I am currently aiding in revamping many aspects from the ground up and sharing materials to promote some of the things you brought up), and this post is presented as a perspective from a side that agrees with your points:

 

Internally, the Law Enforcement Ranger side was pushed heavily since the start: it's the only part that was fully constructed and ready to go when the faction launched. Many of us fought internally to promote the civilian and Park Maintenance aspects, but the faction had not developed any aspects of Park life other than enforcing of the HAPA ("hunting laws", to put plainly), and a few token aspects like the delimitation of categories of State Parks and State Forests, etc. When people joined, it was prioritized that they learn how to be LEO Rangers, and no park duties were really forced on them other than fighting crime.

 

This, along with other aspects (a very militarized Academy, and an FTP system prioritizing LEO aspects of the work exclusively) constitute, in my opinion, one of the fundamental factors as to why SAPR developed that way. Civilian positions were available, but non-LEO Rangers were left to develop their RP exclusively on their own terms, with no guides, no regulations, no visible leadership and no real guidance as to how to promote visits, how to engage with the community (which was always seen as the focus of the Public Relations Rangers and took a backseat in the life of the average member). This area stagnated and new recruits didn't last long.

 

There was also a clear cultural separation in the faction internally, and those of us more invested in the ecology, conservation and the pedagogic aspects of being a Park Ranger were simply vastly outnumbered, and left to RP to our own desires, which we did for the most part until we all slowly decided to leave due to a variety of factors (in my case, I felt like I was pushing for ideas that were of no interest to the core of SAPR, like writing guides on pest control, tree diseases etc. to have passive RP inside of parks, while others wished they had more jurisdiction outside of parks, to broaden their police capabilities).

 

People who met Joseph Torres, my character, may have often seen me on foot patrol, or coming to help with any Animal Control related issues, teaching the community as a Tongva native about the culture of his people, and chatting with hikers and hunters. After reaching the rank of Senior Ranger, I left the faction having made a total of zero arrests, and having issued a total of zero fines, after some fantastic RP with the county community.

 

We're currently working on this, as I said. I don't know if I'll be back in the faction, but I'm currently collaborating with several of the current members of SAPR to revamp the entire Academy process and give a big focus to the forests and Parks. In my mind, the SAPR identity should be the antithesis to the "edgier", bad boy vibe the SD has constructed IC (which is really cool, but that's their identity). To me SAPR should be a simple, mostly rural department, with passionate, kind people that want to promote the enjoyment and conservation of natural spaces, and are incidentally cops.

I wish you the best of luck, because if SAPR goes down that path, it’ll be infinitely better than what it is now.

 

The server doesn‘t need another beat cop faction.

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1 hour ago, Koko said:

Internally, the Law Enforcement Ranger side was pushed heavily since the start: it's the only part that was fully constructed and ready to go when the faction launched.

 

I have never been in SAPR but when it was announced I really hoped all the talk of it being something new and different was true.  But as I watched from the outside, that hope kind of dissipated.  I think the first warning sign was how the faction initially filled up through some kind of private method:  there was no public recruitment for a while but people were filling out the initial ranks anyway.  I suspect these "day 1" people were long-time LEO RPers.  If you seed the faction with long time LEO RPers, they are going to bring the LEO mindset, just a fact I believe.  Then the forums went up and they had the same kind of sections as the PD/SD forums - it was the typical "LEO faction template".  Earlier in this thread I asked why a mic was required and got the expected answer that it's needed for pursuits, which pretty much confirmed in my mind where the faction was going.  Finally, I started to see a wave of PD people applying for double faction perms at SAPR - again, if you fill a faction with people who have a very rigid idea of what LEO RP is, that's what you'll get.  I see that SAPR is currently having some changes though, so I still have hope that it could become something fresh and unique.

 

Nothing here is intended to offend or upset anyone.  Just my personal views.

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3 hours ago, KinnyWynny said:

To add to that, the faction should’ve been called State Parks, which is every other Ranger service is called, it isn’t the National Park Rangers, it’s National Park Service.

 

Best way to change your vision is a better name change, switch to San Andreas State Parks.


As @Koko said we're working on a new form of Academy that focuses on the fundamentals of being a park ranger. Meaning their specialty, their parks, the animals, the vegetation and so forth. 

We are slowly working towards changing the path and mentality from the faction and hopefully it will turn out to be a positive thing. A name change is just a name, it doesn't per say change the core of the faction. However, suggestions have been made before about changing the name, which essentially is up to LFM.

All ideas are obviously welcome!

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