Promotions and other career advancements would come faster for members of the U.S. Park Police under a bill in Congress. The U.S. Park Police Modernization Act was introduced in October. It would bring Park Service personnel practices in line with those of other federal law enforcement agencies. One group supporting this legislation: The National Police Association. Spokesman Betsy Brantner Smith joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin And this bill, is it primarily about personnel practices at the park police or does it go beyond that?

Betsy Brantner Smith Well, it does go beyond that. The park police have long been seen as kind of a federal police agency that kind of gives people directions and helps you find the Washington Monument and things like that. And yet these are their sworn federal law enforcement officers. I’ve trained quite a few of them. They’re terrific cops, terrific people. But they’ve always been a little bit pushed to the side, if you will, when it comes to promotion. And when it comes to other things. Personnel practices often affect things like officer safety, time off, things like that. So the National Police Association decided that we really want to support this bill. This is one of those bills that you’re not going to hear on the air about on the nightly news and things like that. But, it’s HR 9928, and we’re in support of it.

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Tom Temin It sounds like for the Park Service, the park police are kind of maybe not as glamorous as Rangers, which are not the park police. They’re uniform, but it’s a whole different function. And we think of rangers and guides and so forth, and not so much as the law enforcement requirement. Fair way to put it, do you think?

Betsy Brantner Smith Absolutely. When you look at the United States Park Police, there’s only 515 of them. They’re woefully short staffed. And frankly, in the last 10 years, but really, in the last four years especially, they have been put into situations where they’re having to deal with protesters and other violent people that they really haven’t had to deal with a lot in the past. They’ve also been, again, tasked with dealing with illegal immigrants, something that the United States Park Police really has not had to deal with. So the job has changed so much in the last few years. And their policies, their promotions and, of course, their staffing have not kept up with that.

Tom Temin Yes, there is some indication, I think, in some of the material that your organization has put out, and also we’ve heard it from other sources. The Park Service is not able to fill the ranks of the U.S. Park Police.

Betsy Brantner Smith No, they’re really not. And again, remember, this is the agency in charge of keeping safe some of our really most treasured landmarks and the people who come to visit them. And when they have to deal with, for example, a park full of illegal immigrants, they’re unable to help secure tourists. They’re unable to help secure those monuments and landmarks. And again, now understand, this staffing shortage comes at a time when nine out of every 10 police departments around this country are short staffed. So we are kind of balancing out or leveling out, if you will, an era of the last four years of the demonization of the American law enforcement officer and the American justice system. And we have an all time low feeling of trust for the federal government, and this is federal law enforcement. So, unfortunately, part of this is the United States Park Police are suffering from things that they had no hand in doing. But people, they don’t have a lot of faith in the FBI. They don’t have a lot of faith in the Secret Service. And if you don’t have faith in these organizations, it’s really difficult to recruit new people to those organizations. So we’ve definitely got a staffing issue. Plus, when you don’t have the opportunities for promotion, for advancement, then, if you’re somebody who’s interested in law enforcement, you’re going to go to a larger or an agency where you’ve got a lot more movement.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with Betsy Brantner Smith of the National Police Association. So how would this bill help specifically? What’s in there that you think is important?

Betsy Brantner Smith Well, what this is going to do, it’s called the U.S. Park Police Modernization Act. So this is going to help that agency recruit. And there will be things in place as far as helping get information out there. This is also going to improve officer morale by allowing for promotions, by bringing in more personnel so that these U.S. Park police officers don’t feel so, so alone. It will also bring personnel from other federal agencies. And one of the things, I think one of the most underrated things about police recruitment that we don’t talk about is the officers themselves. So if you can improve the feelings that these officers in the U.S. Park Police have for their agency, they’re going to be the ones that are going to go out and say, hey, come to my organization. I have a good friend, she retired a couple of years ago, but she spent 30 years in the United States Park Police. And as I would run into her over the years at various training events, there was no bigger recruiter than her because she loved her job, she loved her country. And she truly loved that agency. So by increasing officer morale through increasing staffing, through increasing officer safety, through allowing for more opportunities for promotion, then you’re going to make the atmosphere better for everyone.

Tom Temin Yes, this bill would establish a 13 step promotion system with pay grades established at each level up into Assistant Chief, which I think is the highest civil service job there. And then there’s chief and would raise them from, I guess, a minimum, it looks like, of about $55,000 a year, all the way up to 171,000 for the career civil service. That seems to be higher than the rates they’re getting now. It gives them a raise, this bill would.

Betsy Brantner Smith Yes. And it brings them more in line with other federal law enforcement agencies. There are so many federal law enforcement agencies. And one of the things that was happening at the park police is these officers would get a few years of experience. They’d get through their initial training and then they go somewhere else. They go to the ATF or they they’d go to the FBI or they go to another organization. That was one of the problems at the United States Park Police because they were losing that experience. They were losing those leaders. And that was, again, this is so full circle that leads back to a lack of personnel because of the low morale and the low pay. And let’s face it you don’t become a cop because of the pay. But especially now in this current atmosphere, if you want to be a police officer and you’re a good qualified candidate, you go anywhere you want because everybody needs cops.

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Tom Temin And it has one backer. The introducer is Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York. Anyone else joining in with her that you’re aware of?

Betsy Brantner Smith Not that we are aware of. And that’s one of the reasons that the National Police Association wanted to get involved, because this is the thing. This is not a sexy bill, let’s face it. This is not something that you’re going to get a lot of attention for politically. But Representative Malliotakis, she decided to step up and really take on this issue. So we are asking Congress to get involved in this. We are asking our legislature to take a hard look at this, because, again, from a purely political standpoint, right now, what’s everybody trying to do? Back the blue. It’s popular again to be pro-police and be pro justice system. So, quite frankly, I got from a political standpoint, this is an easy way for any politician on either side of the aisle to back the blue. There’s nothing partisan about this bill. There’s nothing controversial about this bill. And when we go to the inauguration, those monuments and what the United States Park Police do are going to be on full display for the entire world to see. This is a great time to bring this bill up.

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