A 25-year veteran of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, deputy Mike Hermant said Wednesday he was “absolutely appalled” months ago when he saw the condition of the enclosed bathroom structure at Burns Park in White City. Somebody had beaten the door off its hinges, and the inside of the structure was covered in graffiti.

Without cameras or witnesses, “there was almost nothing we could do” to find out who was responsible for the crime that occurred in the park off Division Road, Hermant said. 

“It’s very difficult to prove it,” Hermant said, “so that’s what inspired me to get a surveillance system.”

The park now has four security cameras — one on each side of the vandalized structure — thanks to a $4,500 grant from The Robert and Frances Chaney Family Foundation. According to its website, the foundation seeks to “benefit the welfare of children and families and to support public safety in specific communities,” including Jackson and Josephine counties, part of the Southern Oregon region where Robert Chaney lived before his death in 2006.

The park’s new security cameras, installed about a month ago, have captured no incidents that have caused the sheriff’s office to investigate, according to Hermant, who is able to examine the camera footage in real time with his smartphone. 

“It looks like we’re resolving this,” Hermant said. 

While Hermant is not one of the six deputies responsible for patrolling the unincorporated community of White City, his role as one of two community-oriented policing services deputies led him to look into the situation at Burns Park and pursue the grant for its security cameras.

“We’re problem-solvers, me and my partner, as far as our job duties are concerned,” Hermant said, referring to fellow deputy David Bartlett. “Instead of just taking the graffiti case … and writing a report, we get a little deeper into it.”

The problem, in this case, was graffiti, which Hermant noted has been under-reported to the sheriff’s office. He said Jackson County Parks officials told him that residents had reported graffiti problems at Burns Park to their office, not to police. So Hermant went to the park to see the vandalism firsthand.

“It really only takes one person to wreak havoc,” Hermant said. 

There were 41 calls for service at or around Burns Park between May 19 and Wednesday, according to information provided by the sheriff’s office. There did not appear to be any calls related to graffiti, but there were some for vandalism, said Aaron Lewis, public information officer for the sheriff’s office. He suspected the number of calls for service to the park regarding graffiti were low because people see it so much that it doesn’t get reported.

Hermant called graffiti “a blight on the community.”

“If you’re here with your family, and you’re looking over at this building and it has gang graffiti on it, it’s just a symbol of crime,” Hermant said, “and no one wants to be around crime, especially in a park. To let that kind of stuff fester isn’t good for the community.”

Lynne Gilstrap, a board member with Cascade Community Pool next to the Burns Park, agreed with Hermant that graffiti is a blight.

“We have everyone from young babies all the way up to a 92-year-old woman who take swimming lessons,” Gilstrap said. “They come in, and they’re so used to seeing flowers and a beautiful mural and a lot of nice families using the skate park. Then, you see someone who’s been tagging it, and it really puts a damper on you. It’s very depressing.”

Gilstrap said she and others have tried to remove the graffiti, but it is tough to do.

Hermant applied for a grant with the Chaney Family Foundation after conducting online research. The foundation then sent out its own personnel to the park to see the bathroom’s damage before deciding to award money to the sheriff’s office. 

“(The cameras) hopefully help … to deter the crime from occurring or, if it does occur, hopefully help us solve it,” Hermant said. 

He touted the fact that the cameras show more of the park than just who is around the bathrooms. They capture a playground and bike path that starts at a sheriff’s office substation.

Gilstrap said graffiti around the pool was an ongoing problem until the sheriff’s office started tackling it.

“Just the fact that people see there are security cameras I think is going to really help knock down the stuff that is going on,” Gilstrap said. “If you see a camera, and you know your face is going to be shown, it’s not hard to find these kids; they’re all pretty much local. I think it’s a wonderful thing (the sheriff’s office) did.”

Going forward, Hermant is hopeful Burns Park can get more security cameras.

“The more, the better,” said Hermant, who is retiring in December. 

Hermant noted that the bathroom structure also got a new door and paint job.

“It’s almost like control-alt-delete; start back from fresh; new building, new cameras,” he said.