Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Association of National Park Rangers.

I am now enjoying the first few months of retirement following a 32-year career as a ranger with the National Park Service.

I started as a seasonal park aide interpreter in a small historic park and ended as a district ranger in a large park. I worked in law enforcement since receiving a “C Card” (this predated commissions) in 1976, served on wildland fire and all-risk incident command teams, and supervised and managed a busy district protection, interpretation and resource management operation for 18 years.

I don’t mention this to brag because I know there are plenty of people out there with more experience than I, but rather to establish my credibility as a witness to the changes that have occurred in the NPS and the ranger profession over a 30-year span. I grew up as a “generalist ranger” and have always supported this concept. I firmly believe that although the Service has changed over the years, the core mission of the national park ranger remains the same:

“. . . to promote and regulate the use of the...national parks...which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Although the ways rangers perform law enforcement duties have evolved, many of the same skills that contributed to the concept or myth of the generalist ranger are still relevant.

Professional Inovations in Law Enforcement

Many events, including Ranger Careers, have had a direct impact on the ranger profession. This eventually brought about the addition of 6c enhanced retirement and its implications. Perhaps one of the overlooked consequences has been the expectation placed on individual employees and managers to live up to the ideal of professional and modern law enforcement standards. This includes the examination and implementation of up-to-date and current training and field practices. One of the more visible programs to come out of this new age of rangering is the field training program for all employees completing basic law enforcement training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. This Servicewide initiative gives new rangers directed and positive field experiences to build on those skills learned at FLETC, and to return to their duty parks better prepared to perform their jobs in a professional and competent manner.

This new infusion of professionalism is also having positive impacts on individual parks and managers when exploring the best ways to administer visitor activities and provide for resource and visitor protection. There have been no significant increases in the number of law enforcement rangers in recent years, although the workload hasn’t diminished. Therefore, individual parks are looking for ways to make the most effective use of available staff and implement new practices to meet these objectives.

The historic mindset of providing daily coverage for areas by uniformed rangers without specific assignments has proved ineffective in preventing more serious crimes against both visitors and resources. Staffing levels in most parks are not adequate to provide 24/7 coverage, and this has resulted in no decrease in criminal activity, threats to visitor safety or degradation of resources. Rangers are forced to remain in a reactive mode and oftentimes respond to incidents after scheduled duty hours. One possible solution being used in many parks is the concept of problem-oriented policing, which has been successful in many jurisdictions throughout the country.

On the Blue Ridge Parkway, district supervisors were asked to go with their field staffs and identify the most critical protection issues. It was quickly apparent that one such issue was the increasing number of motor vehicle collisions with many resulting in serious injuries and property damage. Reports from rangers were verified by an analysis of collision history identifying areas with higher incidences of collisions. It was also determined that a disproportionate number of these collisions involved motorcycles. It was decided to take a multidiscipline approach to tackle this problem, involving analysis, education, engineering/design and enforcement.

The results have been impressive. The Blue Ridge Parkway has seen a 20 percent-plus decrease in serious injury collisions. This decrease is significant because every year for five years the number of collisions had been increasing. The initial objective was to prevent the increase. The results exceeded those expectations.

Several other compensations were derived from these actions. Although the number of violation notices greatly increased, the number of more serious felony and misdemeanor incidents decreased. Rangers have developed better officer safety skills in handling violators and traffic stops in these high-risk situations. Additional training and implementation of criminal interdiction techniques have resulted in increases in criminal apprehensions and prevention of crimes within the park. Some areas historically known as hangouts or contact sites for criminal activity have seen sharp decreases in these activities.

This illustration is just one example of the type of work being accomplished throughout the NPS. Shenandoah has been working with problem-oriented policing for resource crimes that have produced dramatic interagency investigations resulting in prosecutions in both federal and state courts. Shenandoah is also working with patrol models that ensure adequate staffing of law enforcement rangers in specified areas identified through analysis of historical criminal activity. Tactics from the military, called operational leadership, are being developed as a risk management program at Lake Mead to ensure safety of law enforcement rangers.

Benefits of professional strategic and tactical planning for law enforcement such as these include the safety of employees and visitors. Rather than scheduling one ranger to cover an area alone, staffing is done in groups or teams to address specific or potential problems. This provides quicker response for backup and safer control of incidents.

Conducting work at a higher professional standard demands additional effort by supervisors and managers. These types of operations require an elevated demand for planning, training and coordination.

As a district ranger I supervised a protection, interpretation and resource management operation. An organizational change resulted in my position evolving into a more traditional protection management role. I looked forward to having time to spend in the field and concentrating on one functional area. What I found was that keeping up with a professional and progressive protection program was more complex and time consuming then I had expected. In order to develop and maintain an effective law enforcement operation within the district, I had to dedicate more time to administration and management. Newer requirements for training, planning, coordination, analysis, administration, developing responses to criminal activity, and an increasing potential for violent criminal activity have left little or no time for additional activities.

Application of Generalist Skills to Law Enforcement Today

These examples illustrate how modern and emergent techniques are being developed for use in the national parks by today’s professionals. However, to remain effective many of the skills of what was once considered the “generalist ranger” still apply but perhaps in a different context.

The role of educator is still important to the law enforcement ranger. Not only do law enforcement supervisors and managers need to learn and accept new strategies, they need to be able to educate those above them and the field staffs working under them. Should strategies be adopted that alter traditional coverage schedules for law enforcement rangers, other divisions and employees within a park also need to be educated as to why these changes are being made and how to handle any minor incidents that occur during the day.

For example, instead of dispatching a ranger to help a disabled motorist in the park, a tow truck is called instead. Rangers also need to educate other agencies, prosecutors and judges about threats within the park. Many times these contacts evolve into professional presentations involving multimedia, GIS mapping, and resource and mission education.

Any increases in proactive enforcement to address problems in an identified park area will result in additional visitor contacts by rangers. Why am I being stopped? I have never seen so many rangers in this area before? These are golden opportunities to educate park visitors and neighbors about protection issues and resource concerns or to gather information. In instances where this education component is combined with enforcement activities, public reaction can be positive. Most people like to know you are looking out for their safety and protecting important resources. In many instances these contacts will result in gathering valuable intelligence that can be used in developing future strategies or tactics to tackle problems.

Knowledge and understanding of park resources is also essential for rangers to be effective in resource protection. How can you protect endangered species of plants if you can’t identify them or locate their habitats? This is where communications with researchers and resource managers becomes an essential part of the law enforcement ranger and manager’s tool kit.

In historical parks and historic park sites, the ranger needs to be well-versed in the events and locations of significant resources. Without the base knowledge and understanding of the significant resources within a park, rangers are unable to predict and prevent criminal activities within the park. We know criminals are making use of this information and focus their illegal activities at these locations.

An in-depth understanding of visitor use patterns and expectations can be another valuable tool in predicting and preventing criminal activity. Criminals concentrate on where the victims — visitors or resources — are.

Law enforcement rangers often are the first employees to take initial, on-scene command of incidents. They need to be well-trained in the incident command system and prepared for fires, searches, rescue operations and major crimes until other certified managers can respond. This is a critical responsibility; early, proper management of incidents often determines the overall severity or success of such operations.

Professionalization of the NPS law enforcement program goes beyond issues of pay and retirement. Managers and supervisors need to provide the role model of professionalism through planning and direction. Field rangers need to show their professionalism not only through the proper application of skills and training, but by contributing to the decision-making process through the information, insights and analysis of threats to visitors and resources. The skills needed in the past to be a traditional generalist ranger — law enforcement officer, educator, resource manager and incident manager — are still needed to succeed in today’s NPS. Those who can balance these skills will continue to contribute to the mission of the Service and to the success of their own careers.

Bruce Bytnar retired in January 2008 after more than 32 years as an NPS ranger. He began his career as a seasonal interpreter at Fort McHenry, then moved to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania. Finally he worked three different districts on the Blue Ridge Parkway, ending his career in the Ridge District. He worked with regional and national incident command teams on wildfires and all risk incidents. In addition, he was a guest instructor at FLETC and in the NPS Fundamentals Program.

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