United States Park Police
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United States Park Police is the oldest uniformed federal law enforcement agency in the United States. It functions as a full service law enforcement agency with responsibilities and jurisdiction in those National Park Service areas primarily located in the Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York City areas and certain other government lands. In addition to performing the normal crime prevention, investigation, and apprehension functions of an urban police force, the Park Police are responsible for policing many of the famous monuments in the United States and share law enforcement jurisdiction in all lands administered by the Service with a force of National Park Rangers tasked with similar law enforcement powers and responsibilities. The agency also provides protection for the President and visiting dignitaries. The Park Police is a distinct unit of the National Park Service, which is a bureau of the Department of the Interior.
The police functioned as an independent agency of the Federal government until 1849, when it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. In 1867, Congress transferred the police to the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, under the supervision of the Chief of Engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1925, Congress placed the Park Police in the independent Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital. Headed by an Army officer, Lt. Col. Ulysses S. Grant III, the office reported directly to the President of the United States. In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt transferred the police to the National Park Service.
The Park Watchmen were first recruited in 1791 by George Washington to protect federal property only in the District of Columbia. The Watchmen were given the same powers and duties as the Metropolitan Police of Washington in 1882, and their name was changed to the present U.S. Park Police in 1919. Their authority first began to expand outside DC in 1929, and today they are primarily responsible for the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York City and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, as well as the many designated areas in the Washington area, which includes neighboring counties in Maryland and Virginia.
The USPP also oversees the Guard Force which provides many urban National Park Service establishments with unarmed security guard and patrol services usually dealing with access and pass controls, key control, security patrols of buildings and facilities and assisting both the USPP and members of the public.
Park Police must be U.S. citizens over the age of 21, but under 37 when they first apply. They must have at least 60 college credits or 2 years of military service at the time of appointment. Upon completion of training, officers are initially assigned to the Washington area, where the largest contingent of Park Police is located. They are trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia.
The current Superintendent of the NPS Training Center at FLETC, Donald W. Usher, was a USPP officer and helicopter pilot who, on January 13, 1982, assisted following the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 in the Potomac River at Washington DC. Usher and paramedic officer Melvin E. Windsor, were assigned to the Park Police's Aviation unit and were flying Eagle 1, a Bell 206L-1 Long Ranger helicopter from the "Eagle's Nest" base at Anacostia Park. They saved four lives that day at great risk to their own safety. Officers Usher and Windsor were only two of the many Park Police officers who have received the U.S. Department of the Interior's Valor Award.
