"I can't justify putting seven officers there at one time," Brown said. "I've only got so much to work with, but I haven't turned my back on [the trail]. If I can't have somebody there, I'll be there."
Some recent incidents suggest that while the trail is considered safe, it is not immune to crime. In February, a man who police say was the target of a life insurance scheme was found dead in a trailhead bathroom. On Sept. 19, a 16-year-old boy was shot after getting into an argument at a Pop Warner football game at Leon Day Park.
And on May 31, thieves using a bolt cutter broke into a city storage shed on Eagle Drive, the location of the trail office and police substation, and took three city-owned ATVs that retail between $2,000 and $5,000. Two of the ATVs were later located.
A woman who called police to report wild dogs earlier this month said dispatchers seemed "disinterested" and "completely baffled" about the location.
"I hope that all of you will use this as a plea for more security in the park, particularly in the evening and weekends," she wrote in an e-mail to trail advocates. "I sincerely hope that somehow between private and public sources, the staff and police resources that all of you struggled so hard to get in place can be restored."
About 10 years ago, city police agreed to assume responsibility for policing the areas around the trail. Eberhart said the department received $500,000 from the state Department of Natural Resources to purchase vehicles and equipment.
But with budget cuts forcing agency leaders to make tough decisions, commanders must weigh crime-fighting priorities.
Court documents show that Friend, Schaekel and Scott have made numerous arrests throughout the district. They have executed a search-and-seizure warrant along Edmondson Avenue, recovered plastic bags full of heroin in Irvington, set up covert positions watching suspected drug dealers in the Mill Hill neighborhood, and conducted field interviews yielding drugs in the Walbrook neighborhood near the district's border with the Western District.
The supervisor listed as overseeing the trail unit, Sgt. Steve Poist, is known to community members as the supervisor of the neighborhood services unit, a position which appears blank in records.
Brown said two other officers assigned to the trail do in fact make regular checks, though as "operations" officers they are among the first to be detailed to tackle emerging problems, he said.
