Troubling police problems

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

A new federal report says the U.S. police force charged with protecting such landmarks as the Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge lacks the staffing, training and equipment needed to do its job.

The U.S. Park Police guards national park sites primarily in Washington, D.C., but also protects sites in New York and San Francisco. In a report released Monday, Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney says the agency struggles with “competing missions” of protecting national landmarks and acting as an urban police force in the nation’s capital.

What’s more, Devaney noted, despite criticisms “in a number of reports” over the past six years, force management has failed to make significant improvements.

A Park Police official working to protect the Statue of Liberty told inspector general investigators that there weren’t enough officers to cover all posts and that security at the site was mostly “smoke and mirrors.”

In Washington, D.C., another Park Police officer told investigators security of landmarks in the nation’s capital is “just a show put on for people in the Department of the Interior headquarters building.”

Private security companies have been used to bolster the Park Police’s too-thin ranks, the report says, but these contractors are not properly trained. Devaney’s report cited one example in which private guards watched helplessly as protesters draped a banner over the Lincoln Memorial because they did not know what to do.

Devaney faults Park Police Chief Dwight Pettiford for the lack of training and other failures, such as failing to ensure proper maintenance and inspections of officers’ bullet-proof vests. Pettiford replaced Teresa Chambers, who was fired as chief in 2004 after raising concerns about the force’s safety and staffing levels.

The inspector general’s report lists 20 recommendations for improvements, including increasing the number of officers and providing them with better training and equipment.

Nothing less is acceptable. Our nation’s landmarks and monuments and the millions of people who visit them annually must be protected by a top-flight police force that is properly trained and equipped.