Faced with an increase in complaints from Los Angeles County park employees about assaults and harassment, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance allowing staff to temporarily ban unruly people from the county’s green spaces.

The code change authorizes certain provincial officials to issue exclusion orders to people who exhibit “dangerous or threatening behavior,” banning them from provincial parks for a specified period of time. Under the ordinance, a person could potentially be banned from one or more of the provinces in more than 80 parks at once.

The ordinance broadly defines who may be subject to an exclusion order, and authorizes officials to temporarily ban anyone who fails to comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations. The ban can last a month or longer depending on the severity of the violation.

A spokesperson for the

Department of Parks and Recreation

said in a statement that

“

The executive management staff would be the ones to issue and approve the citations. The Park Safety Ordinance is a proactive measure to deter negative behavior and actions that endanger safety, ensuring everyone feels safe and respected while enjoying our beautiful LA County Parks,” Department Director Norma Garca-Gonzlez said in a statement that the department experienced 288 “incidents” last year. He did not immediately respond to questions about how the ordinance would be enforced, by whom, or when it would go into effect.

The ordinance, which passed without discussion, was supported by SEIU 721, the union representing 1,600 parks department employees.

Union president David Green said his members felt increasingly unsafe going to work

some

reporting regular harassment at work. He said there had been a handful

threatened

with baseball bats.

Green said a union investigation into the matter found that about 40% of park employees had been threatened, harassed or physically attacked while on the job. Half of them said it had happened at least three times.

The status quo is that our workers are being harassed, attacked and spat at, he said, adding that he believed a worsening mental health crisis had exacerbated the problem.

About a dozen park employees spoke Tuesday, sharing recent experiences with harassment and threats

working

. Recreation Services Supervisor Carissa Perez said she locked herself in Sunshine Park in La Puente in February around 9 p.m. when a man followed her into the park building and hid next to a soda machine.

He looked at me and I felt that he was going to attack me. “I ran to my car, locked myself in and cried,” she told the board, as her colleagues behind her waved “keep our parks safe” signs.

Stephanie Rodriguez, a member of the Park Equity Alliance, a coalition that advocates for equal access to green spaces in Los Angeles, said she was concerned that the exclusion orders would fall disproportionately on disenfranchised Angelenos with nowhere else to go.

Many people experiencing homelessness use parks as a safe haven, she said.

Other cities and states

That

have created similar ones

regulations

, citing an increase in disruptive behavior. Oregon does

in the process of

changing the rules at state parks so that anyone who endangers visitors or staff can be temporarily banned. The Californian cities of Montclair and Roseville also have rules that allow staff to temporarily ban people who harass staff or visitors.

Green said the union made sure there was a process for people to challenge their exclusion orders.

Under the ordinance, people temporarily excluded from the park must receive written notice and have the opportunity to appeal the order. The province said it will maintain a database of who has been excluded from which park.

Anyone who violates the order could be charged with a misdemeanor.

The scheme will come into effect in one month.