The ranks of National Park Service special agents reportedly are down 45 percent since 2003/NPS file

The National Park Service's loss of special agents over the past 20 years means those who remain will not get involved with “felony investigations of property crimes, and crimes against society such as serious drug-related offenses," according to the agency's associate director for visitor and resource protection.

A memo Jennifer Flynn distributed to the Park Service's regional directors, superintendents, and chief rangers noted that the ranks of special agents has dropped by 45 percent due to funding shortages. Today there are just 30 special agents, down from 55 in 2003, with "an area of responsibility that has grown exponentially at 1,692 percent beyond its original intent," Flynn noted.

"[T]he current situation requires attention," she added.

The memo, from July, was obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and released Thursday.

An email to the Park Service's national headquarters in Washington seeking comment on PEER's release was not immediately answered.

NPS Special Agents are plainclothes criminal investigators, as opposed to uniformed national park rangers. 

According to PEER, the latest annual report (2020) from the NPS Investigative Services Branch estimates that felony investigations of property crimes and serious drug-related offenses represent approximately one-fifth of the current workload.

“Reducing our official response to robberies, meth labs, and human trafficking occurring inside our national parks seems like a step in a very wrong direction,” said Pacific PEER Director Jeff Ruch, adding that since 2005 the number of permanent uniformed Park Service law enforcement rangers has also shrunk by more than one-seventh (15 percent) while the number of seasonal law enforcement rangers hired during peak seasons has dropped by almost one-third (30 percent). 

“Despite larger overall budgets, the Park Service continues to disinvest in its law enforcement capacity," Ruch said.

PEER said the effects of these force shortfalls are compounded by two related NPS failings: 1) the lack of a coherent criminal incident reporting system, and; 2) the disappearance of any law enforcement deployment planning.

"This means the agency continues to fly blind, constrained by fewer resources even as demand for law enforcement coverage within national parks keeps growing," the watchdog organization said in a release Thursday.

Flynn’s memo indicated that Investigative Services Branch was still struggling with “many foundational questions which need definition and clarity to effectively inform and guide strategic decision making for the NPS law enforcement program in the years to come.”

Similarly, a 2019 Government Accountability Office report found that NPS and other federal land management agencies are unable “to make informed resource allocation decisions for their physical security needs,” a situation that could leave both staff and visitors with an “insufficient level of protection.” Furthermore, the GAO study stated that "BLM, FWS, the Forest Service, and the Park Service had not conducted all required facility security assessments, and BLM, the Forest Service, and the Park Service do not have a plan for doing so."

Against that backdrop, visitation to national parks has soared.

“In the past 20 years, national park visitation has skyrocketed, meaning that parks face the same law enforcement challenges as any big city but without the resources or leadership,” said Hudson Kingston, PEER's staff litigation and policy attorney. “National parks should inform visitors that they typically have far more to fear from each other than from any other species in the vicinity.”

Back in July the nonprofit organization issued another release highlighting the overall loss of rangers in the National Park System.

Despite record levels of visitation, skyrocketing search and rescue operations, and rising crime, the number of law enforcement rangers in our national parks has steadily shrunk. While overall NPS staffing is down, the drop in law enforcement ranks is even more acute. Since 2005, the ranks of permanent law enforcement rangers fell by more than one-seventh (15%) while seasonal law enforcement rangers deployed during peak seasons has dropped by almost one-third (30%). -- PEER