In 1968 the City of Austin's park and recreation department hired the first park ranger. By 1970 there were 10 park rangers patrolling all of the park areas in the city. In 1985 these 10 park rangers were commissioned as peace officers creating the Austin Park Police. In 2008 the Austin Park Police officers were absorbed by the Austin Police Department as part of the Austin Public Safety and Emergency Management merger with APD. The Parks patrol remained a unit of APD until they were dissolved in 2021 as a result of defunding measures. The 36 officers assigned to patrol the 19,069 acres of parkland were sent to help the staffing crisis facing APD.

https://parkserve.tpl.org/downloads/pdfs/Austin_TX.pdf

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/Parks_Ranger/rangerhistory.pdf