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The union representing federal park police warned the Biden administration on Monday that visitors to major urban facilities, including in Washington, D.C., are not safe because of a staffing shortage.
Kenneth Spencer, chairman of the U.S. Park Police Fraternal Order of Police, said that the shortage is expected to worsen as Washington and likely other cities begin offering hiring bonuses as high as $20,000 that are luring away park police officers.
In a letter to Deb Haaland, the Interior Department secretary who oversees U.S. parks, Spencer wrote, “Our agency is in crisis, the public who visit our parks are not safe, and our officers and potential recruits have little incentive to pursue a career with the USPP” without a bonus program like the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department model.
In his letter, shared with Secrets, he cited the $20,000 bonus the district is using to hire more police to handle a growing crime wave in the city quickly.
“As [District] Mayor [Muriel] Bowser recognizes, ‘hiring bonuses will help MPD recruit and hire more officers to keep [Washington] safe.’ The same is certainly true with our agency and the three metropolitan areas that we patrol,” Spencer wrote of Washington, San Francisco, and New York City.
He said that the Park Police has 639 positions set aside for the three cities, but just 509 of those slots are filled. He cited a study that said the police force should have over 800 police in the three urban areas.
“No one enjoys saying it, but you and I both know that the thousands of families who visit the national parks in Washington, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco every single day are not as safe as they should be because there are not enough officers on patrol to meet our mission,” Spencer warned.
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