New Division of Law Enforcement in the Dept of Natural Resources

[obifishkenobi]

I spent last January and February visiting every state park in my role with the State of Utah and talked to most of the Park Managers and their staffs about this reorganization. From these conversations, my understanding is that, park rangers and game wardens will be combined together into one division. Currently each park is its own law enforcement unit with the highest ranking member also serving as the park manager. Under the new system there will be regional offices or stations that the new division officers will work out of. Current park rangers will have to decide whether they want to remain at their parks and give up their LE duties or continue their LE careers and possibly have to move to another region of the state to continue in LE. One of the consideration that they have to think about is the state retirement system which contributes 15% to firefighters and cops and only 10% to the rest of us. I heard that the goal will be to reduce the total number of officers in the state by about 1/3 because they will need fewer command chains of lieutenants and captains. The plan is to not lay anybody off but for it to happen through retirement and attrition. The last couple Parks Managers hired at Red Fleet and Huntington State Park have not been LE. From a Facilities stand point I think its a good thing that the parks are going to be managed by people with back grounds in recreation or facilities management. It seemed to me that most of the rangers I talked to that where close to retirement planned on staying with their park so that they would not have to possibly move. A smaller portion of the younger rangers that liked where they lived and went to work every day are planning on giving up LE. A good portion of the rangers live in houses in their parks and would likely be required to move out if they continue in LE.