SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
It’s one of the smallest police departments in the greater Sacramento region.
“Years ago, they created the Park Police Department,” said former Fulton El Camino (FEC) Park Police Chief Bob Erickson.
The team of 11 oversees numerous parks. At one point, the agency contracted its services to other park districts, patrolling over 100 parks across areas like Carmichael, Orangevale and Rio Linda.
Why a police department for parks? It’s simple: safety.
“I remember 40 years ago these were lovely and safe places to come to and in recent months and weeks we’ve seen a decline,” said Craig Fowler, who lives next to a park in Carmichael. “We’ve had needles and drug paraphernalia we’ve had to pick up before we let our kids go out there in the daytime.”
“We want to keep our parks safe,” said James, an officer with the FEC Park Police.
The goal is to protect everyone. While children are typically in the parks during the day, many parks host events like concerts and other activities that attract visitors of all ages.
“We have horse arenas. We have bicycle trails, fishing areas,” James explained. “We are also protecting the nature too – trees, ponds, rivers, animals, the people, sports teams, weddings concerts, everyone.”
The department has been around since the 1960s and operates under the FEC Park Police District.
“Officers are fully sworn California peace officers with the same authority as sheriff’s deputies and the City of Sacramento police officers,” the FEC Park District’s website explains.
Employees see the department’s role as crucial.
“When I started with the (FEC Park) police department, the Howe Park Bloods (gang) had taken over Howe Park,” Erickson said. “And the Howe Bloods are not here anymore… the absence of crime shows that the police department is being successful.”
Park Police staff said their agency eases the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office’s workload and often responds faster, as the sheriff’s office is tied up with high-priority calls countywide.
Sacramento Sheriff’s dispatch records show since September 2023, FEC Park Police have responded to around 130 calls involving assault, trespassing, child abuse, animal abuse, vandalism and more.
However, employees emphasized that their primary role is maintaining a presence in the parks, which makes a big difference to residents.
“Oh my gosh, I personally could not live without the Fulton El Camino Park Police,” said Tammy Hall, a Carmichael resident.
“They do a lot more for the community than the community even realizes,” said Kevin Poole, a Rio Linda resident.
Officers and rangers do not make a living from this job.
“Everybody is part time,” Erickson said.
“We all come in outside our normal full-time jobs,” James said.
Records show each park police employee earns around $200 a week, less than what many fast food workers make in California.
“For me, it’s not about the money,” James said. “It’s about giving back to the community that I live in.”
But inside the agency, employees are questioning what’s happening under interim Police Chief Beth Johnson.
“I would say it’s unprecedented,” said Jack, an officer with the park police.
ABC10 spoke with nine current and former employees of the FEC Park Police and District, all of whom expressed similar concerns. Two agreed to speak on-camera, representing their colleagues, on the condition their identities be protected. We’ve given them pseudonym names of James and Jack.
“I can recall being notified that she (Chief Johnson) had been hired two days before she began working,” Jack said.
There was no job description or posting for the FEC Police Chief position, records show.
ABC10 reached out to both Chief Johnson and the FEC Park District General Manager Emily Ballus, but both declined our interview requests.
In an email, the district said Johnson never had to apply since her position was “contracted.” However, when ABC10 filed a public records request for that contract, the district produced no responsive records.
“The reason that was surprising, not just to me… but to everyone that works here, is because when chiefs of police and interim chiefs of police are hired, there’s a very specific and public process that goes into it,” Jack explained.
Part of that process, he said, is a swearing-in ceremony.
“Public notification to the community in the change of leadership,” Jack said.
Here’s a picture of former Chief Erickson’s swearing-in:
But for Chief Johnson, employees say no ceremony took place.
By law, any new peace officer in California must undergo a background check, psychological evaluation and medical assessment.
“None of that was done,” Jack said.
“It felt like it was just very under the radar and trying to be very discreet,” James said.
When ABC10 asked if a swearing-in ceremony and the legally required checks were done for Johnson, the district did not answer.
It said the Fulton El Camino Park District “board approved her selection from retired police chiefs with the assistance of recruiters specializing in law enforcement hiring.”
“You will not find another chief of police, where a chief of police – interim or permanent – is simply selected,” Jack said.
Records show Johnson wasn’t reported to California’s Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training (POST), a requirement when any peace officer joins a new department.
POST told ABC10 they’re in talks with the park police about this. The park district didn’t respond to our questions.
The bigger issue, according to employees, is Johnson’s salary.
“It’s just incomprehensible to me,” Erickson said.
Records show Johnson earns around $16,800 a month – over $220,000 annually – for a part-time role, making her the highest paid person in the history of the FEC Parks and Recreation District, according to Jack.
In contrast, when Erickson was chief, records he provided ABC10 show the most he made in an entire year was around $16,300, less than what Johnson makes in a month.
“I think I got like 50 bucks an hour,” Erickson said. “I don’t understand it, but the board must have approved it.”
The board approved Johnson’s salary, despite records listing the annual pay for the Park Police Chief position at $32 an hour, around $33,000 annually.
“She’s in the Bay Area,” Erickson said. “She’s not even here.”
“You don’t hear from Chief Johnson at all,” James said.
“My relationship has been non-existent,” Jack said. “I would say that is the same feeling shared by every single member of this agency.”
The FEC District defended Johnson’s hiring, saying she’s a “30-year veteran in California law enforcement” and was brought on to assess “issues identified” by outside reviews of the agency.
They did not respond to ABC10’s questions about her salary.
Employees say since arriving to run the department, Johnson seems to be leading a charge to shut it down.
“It breaks my heart,” Erickson said of the FEC Park Police's possible disbandment. “I mean, it almost makes me teary eyed.”
Sources allege that FEC Park Police General Manager Emily Ballus handed Johnson the job to dismantle the department.
“Emily’s primary goal is disbanding the agency,” Jack said.
The department has been operating successfully for years, but once Ballus came on board, the number of contracted parks they oversee dwindled, according to James.
“As of two years ago we were overseeing just over 100 (parks),” James said. “And now we’re (at) about 60 to 70.”
To ensure her side was included, ABC10 tried to speak with Ballus multiple times. We also offered her the opportunity for an on-camera interview. She declined, but called our reporting a “smear campaign” in an email to the FEC Park District board, records show.
She provided ABC10 with written statements. Both are available in-full at the bottom of this article.
In part, she said over the last few years, four park districts “terminated their contracts for Park Police services," decreasing their budget from around $400,000 to $200,000.
The district is considering options, she said, so the police department aligns with “professional standards” due to “significant changes in California law and community expectations around policing.”
That’s why, Ballus explained, they hired outside experts to review the police department.
Ballus told ABC10 they’ve spent over $42,000 on multiple reviews – or audits – of the police department over the last three years.
“Auditing any government entity is a very common thing,” Jack said. “What is unusual is the excessive amount of them that have been conducted. I believe there’s been three or four over the past number of years.”
Jack and others told ABC10 they believe the audits are being done in an effort to disband the park police.
ABC10 reviewed two audits: one conducted by former Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn and the other by the organization, Meliora Public Safety Consulting. Both reviews highlighted issues including inadequate training, part-time staffing and a need for better policies and record-keeping.
Johnson and Ballus have continued to refer to the audit’s findings, like in the district's August 2024 FEC Security and Community Relations Committee Meeting. ABC10 obtained an audio recording of the meeting via a public records request. In it, Johnson said:
“How we are currently functioning is a huge risk to this district. It is not acceptable in current modern-day policing, so a shift does have to happen."
Current and former employees feel the audits were unfair, comparing their small, 11-member department to a 1,000-plus employee organization like the Sacramento Police Department.
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“They’re apples and oranges. There’s a little mom-and-pop market up the street there... There’s a need for that mom-and-pop market, but you can’t compare them to Bel Air or Safeway because those are huge stores that offer a different service than that mom-and-pop store,” Erickson said. “This is like a mom-and-pop police department.”
But the risks of law enforcement are equal, no matter what the agency.
“I actually feel our liability is as low as it could possibly be,” Jack said. “We’ve had one officer involved shooting in the history of the agency.”
A low rate compared to other law enforcement agencies in our region, he says and data reveals.
Their liability is limited, they say, thanks in-part to the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office.
“They’re more involved in dangerous scenarios than the park police would be,” James said. “Our main mission is quality of life.”
Emails show that in 2022, an FEC Park Police employee questioned Ballus’s use of public funds and tried to address and fix many of the issues highlighted in the audits. Instead of considering these suggestions, sources allege Ballus ordered costly audits.
Meanwhile, March 2024 meeting minutes show Johnson referring to the police department as a “financial hardship.”
At the August 2024 meeting, Johson said the bigger issue with the police department was money.
“We cannot properly fund a police department as it currently stands,” Johnson said. “That’s the bigger issue.”
“If they’re talking about budget – and they’re talking about saving money – how can they spend, first, all this money on all these audits?” Erickson said.
Critics, including Erickson, questioned how the district could spend so much on audits and on salaries for both Johson and Ballus. Records show their combined pay is over $334,000 annually. That’s 66% of the FEC Park Police’s annual budget.
“That money could easily be distributed to more training, vehicle repairs, better equipment,” James said.
Yet, the FEC Park District is asking taxpayers for more money this election through Measure Q. The bond would give the district $24 million for improvements on lighting, cameras, fencing and other structures.
More money, but not for the police department, leaving employees with even more questions.
“Are they doing what’s best for the community with those tax dollars?” asked Jack.
They say the FEC Park District is operating in the dark.
“If you’re going to continue on the path of maybe disbanding, include the community,” Erickson said. “Include those people you serve.”
ABC10 heard from community members like Craig Fowler, who has a business and lives across from a park in Carmichael.
“This would be in peril,” Fowler said. “Great peril of delinquency and bad behavior if they weren’t a resources for us to call.”
John Todd monitors the pulse of the Rio Linda community as the publisher of Rio Linda Online.
“Who’s going to respond to the park calls?” Todd asked. “It’s not going to be the (Sacramento) Sheriff’s Department. They can’t handle what they already have.”
If the FEC Park District is shut down, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office will take over responding to calls and first response. The sheriff’s office told ABC10 they are currently short-staffed – down 100 employees – while being responsible for overseeing the entire county. FEC Park Police employees said they worry calls to parks won’t be a priority for the sheriff’s office, leading to an increase in crime.
That’s why to many neighbors and FEC Park Police employees ABC10 spoke with, these parks and areas are a haven – and need protection.
“It’s just, to me, what life should be all about is people interacting with other people and enjoying their life,” Erickson said. “Because today is a gift! That’s why it’s called the present.”
All while the future of the FEC Park Police remains unclear.
For a full statement from Fulton-El Camino Recreation and Park District, view the PDF below.
For an additional statement from Fulton-El Camino Recreation and Park District, view the PDF below.
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