On July 27, 2017 the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report: “National Mall: Actions Needed to Better Manage Physical Security Risks”. The security of the National Mall has concerned the United States Park Police- Fraternal Order of Police (USPPFOP) since the early 1990’s. In the April 2013 USPPFOP Newsletter, there is an article detailing the National Park Service’s decades long neglect of National Mall security issues, written during the furlough of United States Park Police (USPP) officers. We repost this article to highlight that this is not a new issue and that it has been previously studied by “experts” on several occasions. What needs to be done is common knowledge – we don’t need another study (wasted money) – we need a plan to fix the already identified problems and then we need to take action. Let’s hope that this most recent GAO report will spark an initiative that will fix these problems.
Note: Since this was posted the USPP has reassigned a few officers to task forces and has obtained a newer helicopter to replace one of its three aging helicopters.
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