The New York City Parks Department maintains more than 1,700 parks in the city which includes 950 playgrounds, 700 playing fields, 550 tennis courts, 14 miles of beaches, 13 golf courses, seven nature centers, six ice skating rinks, four zoos, four botanical gardens and more across 28,000 acres. With that in mind, how many Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officers would you guess protect all that greenery? If you guessed about 176 you win!

And what is worse, that very low count comes as last year saw a 24% surge in crimes in parks city wide. The biggest increase was in Crotona Park in the Bronx where "crime rose 414%. 7 incidents were reported in 2009 vs. 36 in 2010. Robberies increased from 5 to 25. Burglary rose from 0 to 2, and Grand Larceny went from 0 in 2009 to 6 in 2010." The Bronx is actually home to the most city park land and yet "the whole force for the Bronx, the total number they have, and that includes our mounted patrol, is eight,” Joe Puleo of the Parks Enforcement Officers Union told NY1.

It is worth noting that some city parks, like Hudson River Park, have extra officers funded through other means and the NYPD is also known to step into the parks when needed (especially since PEP officers are unarmed).

So how is the PEP dealing? Faced with increased budget cuts from Bloomberg they are doing the best they can. "We have fewer staff than we did last year at this time. But we are still out there doing our jobs,” said Deputy Parks Commissioner Liam Kavanagh. They're also hiring people on public assistance as part of a jobs training program to help ease the pain. But that has its drawbacks too, as the trainees are not certified for security work. As one officer explains, "if we have an arrest, if a person cannot help you cuff a person or restrain an individual or use a baton or use a radio to call using the various codes that you use, you are in trouble."

And you know what is going to really make the already over-worked PEP even more effective at their job? Having to start ticketing smokers in parks and on beaches come May 23.