United States Park Police parent organization National Park Service
The United States Park Police (USPP) is one of the oldest uniformed federal law enforcement agencies in the United States. It functions as a full-service law enforcement agency with responsibilities and jurisdiction in those National Park Service areas primarily located in the Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York City areas and certain other government lands. United States Park Police officers have jurisdictional authority in the surrounding metropolitan areas of the three cities it primarily operates in, meaning they possess both state and federal authority. In addition to performing the normal crime prevention, investigation, and apprehension functions of an urban police force, the Park Police are responsible for policing many of the famous monuments in the United States.
The USPP shares law enforcement jurisdiction in all lands administered by the National Park Service with a force of National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers tasked with the same law enforcement powers and responsibilities. The agency also provides protection for the President, Secretary of the Interior, and visiting dignitaries. The Park Police is an operation of the National Park Service, which is an agency of the Department of the Interior. As of April 8, 2022, the force consisted of 494 officers.History
The Park Watchmen were first recruited in 1791 by George Washington to protect federal property in the District of Columbia. The police functioned as an independent agency of the federal government until 1849, when it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. In 1867, Congress transferred the police to the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, under the supervision of the Chief of Engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Watchmen were given the same powers and duties as the Metropolitan Police of Washington in 1882. Their name was officially changed to the present United States Park Police in 1919. In 1925, Congress placed the Park Police in the newly created Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital. Headed by an Army officer, Lt. Col. Ulysses S. Grant III, the office reported directly to the President of the United States. In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt transferred the police to the National Park Service.Their authority first began to expand outside D.C. in 1929, and today they are primarily responsible for the Gateway National Recreation Area units in New York City-New Jersey and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, as well as the many designated areas in Washington D.C. and the neighboring counties in Maryland and Virginia. These sites include the National Mall, the C&O Canal towpath in the region, and the parallel roadways of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia and Clara Barton Parkway in Maryland, as well as the federally maintained segment of the Baltimore Washington Parkway in Maryland.
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