Brooklyn residents and elected officials are renewing pressure on the city to beef up Park Enforcement Patrol staffing at Seth Low Park in Bensonhurst after months of complaints about reckless moped riders and a high-profile stabbing. The new fiscal-year budget locks hundreds of Parks Department jobs into the city’s baseline, but advocates say that move does not fix what they see as a glaring shortage of on-the-ground park enforcement.
Local concerns grow after safety incidents
Residents, community leaders and Council members have been calling for a stronger Parks presence at Seth Low Park in the wake of repeated complaints and a stabbing that rattled the neighborhood. As reported by News 12 New York, advocates and the union representing PEP officers argue that staffing has not kept pace with what parks are actually facing on the ground.
What the budget did, and did not, do
At a May 27 City Council budget hearing, Parks officials told members that the department’s FY27 executive budget comes in at roughly $685.4 million. Council staff noted that about 100 Park Enforcement Patrol lines were still funded on a one-shot basis at that time. The same hearing also laid out borough-level disparities in baseline PEP staffing and flagged a wider vacancy problem across Parks. Testimony and backup materials from the Council detail the granular questions members pressed Parks officials to answer.
City says some park lines were baselined
Afterward, the mayor’s office announced a handshake agreement on the adopted FY27 budget that it says permanently baselines funding for a range of Parks positions and programs. The city folded that into a $14.4 million package it describes as covering PEP officers, GreenThumb staff and stump removal, framing the move as protecting jobs that had previously depended on year-to-year funding. The administration’s own account is laid out in a summary from the Mayor’s Office.
Union reaction: secure lines, but no new hires
Union leaders say they are glad to see the existing lines secured in the baseline, since that protects current jobs, but they stress that the deal did not add any new PEP headcount. “I thank the mayor, they’re going to continue to have their jobs. But nothing new was added,” Joseph Puleo, president of DC 37 Local 983, told News 12 New York. The union has a long track record of lobbying for more PEP staffing and remains a central voice pressing for changes in how and where officers are deployed.
City Council moves to force transparency
Council Member Susan Zhuang has introduced legislation that would require the Department of Parks and Recreation to publish regular reports showing how Park Enforcement Patrol officers and park rangers are distributed across the boroughs. According to a press release and legislative notes from the NYC Council, the first of those reports is expected by the end of July.
On the ground: NYPD patrols vs. PEP officers
Some neighbors say they are seeing more NYPD patrols in Bensonhurst, but advocates counter that Park Enforcement Patrol officers are specifically trained to enforce park rules and address quality-of-life issues. The union and Parks advocates argue that PEP officers’ focus on park safety, rather than general street policing, makes them better suited to keep playgrounds, courts and paths safe. That has been a recurring point in the union’s own communications, including updates from DC 37 Local 983.
What to watch next
Advocates and neighborhood leaders say they will be watching the council-mandated report due at the end of July for borough-by-borough deployment data and any hint that the city might shift lines to parks with the most urgent needs. For now, the FY27 budget move offers job security for some Parks employees, but community groups argue that turning budget language into more officers on the beat, particularly at parks like Seth Low, is work that is still very much unfinished.
