PEER maintains that the NPS has all but abandoned efforts to assess its law enforcement needs. Although NPS policy requires each park to perform a Law Enforcement Needs Assessment every three years, the agency has abandoned the practice, the group said. Meanwhile, a five-year-old Government Accountability Office report warns that security threats within national parks and other federal lands are rising without commensurate investment or appropriate planning.
Meanwhile, for the past two years, the Park Service has not replied to FOIA requests from PEER on these and related topics, causing PEER to file a lawsuit this spring seeking records on recent search and rescues, reported crimes, attacks on staff, and related items.