Norton Says Hearings Necessary to Reach Solutions to Multiple Park Police Problems (2/6/08)

Norton Says Hearings Necessary to Reach Solutions to Multiple Unexposed Park Police Problems
February 6, 2008

Washington, DC-The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released a letter to Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, requesting a hearing on "longstanding, serious concerns regarding the level of security at the national parks located here and throughout the country." Norton's letter follows the release this week of a critical assessment of the U.S. Park Police (USPP) by the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior on security and staffing at national monuments, many of the same issues that Norton brought to public attention after five assaults on the National Mall in 2006, prompting her to get U.S. Capitol Police's help in patrolling the Mall area. Norton wrote, "In my trips to the Mall, where I queried police officials and guards, I found that the problems ran the gamut from poor lighting and lack of systems for inspecting and replacing lights to USPP Mall police who worked 12 hour shifts because of personnel shortages."

Norton said she believes that a "thoroughgoing hearing is necessary to get to the causes that have crippled a federal police force that had once had a stellar reputation." The full text of Norton's letter follows.

February 4, 2008

The Hon. Raúl M. Grijalva, Chairman

Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands

Washington, D.C.

Dear Raúl:

I am writing to request that the subcommittee hold hearings on the conditions of the United States Park Police (USPP). We have had a longstanding serious concern regarding the level of security at the national parks located here and throughout the country that broke open in the press yesterday following the release of the Department of Interior Inspector General "Assessment of the United States Park Police." In addition to the Mall, virtually all parks in the District of Columbia (Rock Creek Park, Anacostia Park, etc...) are under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (NPS). Consequently, I have long been involved with both the NPS and the USPP. For example, after five assaults on the National Mall in 2006, the first in memory for the Mall which has always been crime free, even during crime spikes in the District, it became clear that both homeland security and public safety in USPP jurisdictions, particularly in the National Capitol Region, had reached crisis proportions. The USPP was so short staffed that I sought permission from the House Sergeant-At-Arms and Capitol Police Board to extend their jurisdiction beyond the Capitol to shore up the USPP that summer. The tourist season was at its height and most of the 20 million visitors annually to the District find their way to the Mall. My own trips to the Mall during that crisis revealed such poor lighting, including the areas where the assaults occurred, that I asked for a comprehensive inventory of lighting on the Mall and requested and received temporary lighting on the long stretch between the Lincoln and World War II memorials which I discovered was completely without any lighting. In my trips to the Mall, where I queried police officials and guards, I found that the problems ran the gamut from poor lighting and lack of systems for inspecting and replacing lights to USPP Mall police who worked 12 hour shifts because of personnel shortages.

I believe that the issues facing the USPP are unusually serious and have crippled a federal police force that once had a stellar reputation. I hope that the subcommittee will place the matter on its agenda for this year.

I deeply appreciate your attention to the Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act and the pending tour your staff is organizing. I very much look forward to working with you to bring these valuable federal assets up to modern standards at no cost to the government.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Holmes Norton