The union that represents U.S. Park Police officers said it is seeing a new urgency from the Department of the Interior to address what it calls a “critical shortage” of officers in the D.C. region.
The new momentum to bring on new officers comes after an executive order from President Donald Trump on Monday as the federal law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital continues.
Chair of the U.S. Park Police Fraternal Order of Police Ken Spencer called it the most movement he’s seen from the Interior in his over six years of sounding the alarm about the staffing shortage.
“They are taking proactive steps to try and hire more police officers for our agency very quickly,” Spencer told WTOP.
Spencer said since the increase in presence of law enforcement began, there have been visits by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum at roll calls for officers, including one during which he was joined by President Trump. But he said talks to staff up truly got underway following the executive order.
Last week, Spencer told WTOP the department, which patrols the National Mall and several area parkways, has been working in the D.C. region with 294 officers, when it should have 436.
Spencer said he has been told the goal is to bring on at least 100 new officers quickly, which he believes will happen through lateral transfers. He said those hires involve bringing in police officers who work at other area police departments to reduce training time.
“Put them through some sort of agency-specific training … approximately five or six weeks of training with U.S. Park Police — specific general orders and training,” Spencer said. “Then go through our field training process, where they could just get on the street and start working quickly.”
With new recruits without police experience, he said it takes roughly a year to turn them into street-ready officers.
While not confirming how many new officers will be quickly hired this year, in a statement to WTOP, Department of the Interior Deputy Press Secretary Aubrie Spady said the administration is “bolstering staffing and resources” and is “fast-tracking” recruitment efforts to “quickly grow the force.”
“Morale is high among the U.S. Park Police as the Trump administration backs law enforcement with real action,” Spady wrote. “Our dedicated Park Police are excited to welcome these new additions who are joining the mission to protect our nation’s capital.”
While getting new officers in place will take some of the stress off the current force, Spencer said there are challenges with quickly onboarding officers, even if they have law enforcement experience.
“Of course, we’re trying to work out the logistics, because we’re not only just understaffed with sworn law enforcement, but we’re also understaffed with support personnel and training officers that can come in and help train new recruits at a quicker pace than what we’ve been doing,” he said.
Spencer said he believes this will be the most officers the department has brought on in a year. Before this, he only recalls one year when 72 officers were brought onto the force over the course of a year.
To bring in officers, especially those who work at other departments, Spencer said the move would need to be incentivized.
Signing bonuses are likely, Spencer said, but he said those alone will not bring officers over or retain currently with the department.
Spencer said proposals should include retention bonuses, competitive pay for officers, allow officers to take patrol cars home and reduce the years an officer needs to work to receive a pension from 30 to 22 years.
“We have looked at other law enforcement agencies, at what they’re doing, like the D.C. police. We’ve looked at what Capitol Police has done over the years, the Secret Service Uniform Division — we’re looking to get somewhere in that ballpark,” Spencer said.
Spencer said the call for the “U.S. Park Police Modernization Act,” a House bill that he said aims to modernize the pay and retirement structure for officers, to be passed by Congress remains.
“If they just throw a big lump sum of money at us and try and say, ‘Hey, just hire some officers,’ that’s not going to fix the core problem,” he said. “The problem is officers are walking out the door and going somewhere else for greener pastures.”
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