The Zoo police pack SIg 357s.

Government has grown, and so has the number of tiny police forces. The zoo force is a rare breed.

WASHINGTON—Sgt. Ron Gaskins has walked this police beat before, and he knows trouble when he sees it.

A crowd had gathered and was watching a curious character shimmying along two cables, stretched from pole to pole. “Where they’re standing now might not be good,” Sgt. Gaskins said.


“Folks,” the officer warned, gesturing to a painted sidewalk, “you might want to stay clear of the gray concrete.”

The subject of interest—a sometimes moody resident known as Bonnie—squatted. A long, steady stream sprayed onto the sidewalk 50 feet below. The crowd squealed upon realizing that Bonnie, an orangutan at the National Zoo, was peeing.

“That looked intentional,” the patrolman said. Could she be arrested? “No statute for that one,” he deadpanned.

It was a typical summer day for Sgt. Gaskins of the National Zoological Park Police, a 123-year-old law-enforcement agency that is a rare breed: a fully armed police department run by a zoo, complete with a fleet of squad cars, an armory and a jail cell.


Sgt. Ron Gaskins smiles after a crowd discovers why he had warned them about Bonnie the orangutan on cables above a sidewalk at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

Bonnie makes her way across cables—known as the O-line—that go from one enclosure to the next.
Wearing a SIG Sauer .357 caliber sidearm and a badge, Sgt. Gaskins is a sworn peace officer with the full arrest and use-of-force powers of most municipal police officers. He is one of thousands of police officers in Washington assigned to as many as three dozen police departments that patrol the nation’s capital, serving and protecting constituents of all stripes, from cabinet secretaries to lawmakers to justices.

This being Washington, law-enforcement agencies have blossomed alongside the growth of government, with many agencies, from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to the National Zoo, embracing their police squads as sources of pride, prestige and protection.

“We’re knee-deep in police,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank in Washington. “Only here in the capital of the free world do you find local police and federal police tripping over each other.”

The plethora of police in the capital is rooted in history, the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers and the establishment of the District of Columbia as the federal city, which is neither a state nor a federal entity. Neither is the zoo, a part of the Smithsonian Institution, which is a federal trust instrumentality created by Congress but not a part of the legislative branch. In other words, the National Zoo is neither fish nor fowl.

The Federal Reserve Board is also a different animal, a creation of Congress that is independent. The 2001 Patriot Act gave the Fed power to create its own police, which also patrols the 12 regional banks of the Fed.



Some police even have their own police. The nation’s premier enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, operates the FBI Police as a separate department. The Secret Service runs a uniformed Secret Service Police.

In 1791, President George Washington created Park Watchmen, now called the U.S. Park Police. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln formed the Metropolitan Police Department to keep order as the Civil War began.

MPD is the main force handling municipal policing, major crime and protests, and plays a key role in motorcades of presidents and heads of state.

“When I first came, it was confusing,” said Charles Ramsey, D.C. police chief from 1998 to 2006. “It seemed like each agency wanted to have their own separate department, which doesn’t really make sense to me.”

There was a running joke, Mr. Ramsey said, that if a man got shot in front of the White House “and staggered and fell in the street, MPD would investigate. If he fell on the sidewalk, U.S. Park Police would investigate, and on the grass, the Secret Service would.”

It’s not a joke at Union Station. Amtrak police guard the inside of the train depot, MPD watches the front drive, and the U.S. Park Police patrol the station’s grassy plaza.

D.C. police handle most major crimes. The MPD has agreements with the Zoo Police and many of the 30 or so other departments in D.C. The MPD will determine who will take the lead in the investigations, the agreements state.

In 1948, the District’s top attorney tried to rein in all the agencies, ruling that special police departments were unauthorized, according to a history by Smithsonian researchers. “This created quite a stir at federal facilities that had commissioned Special Officers,” the history says. The Supreme Court, the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress quickly got acts of Congress to authorize their police.

Once created, police departments rarely shut down, although that happened in 2003 when Congress directed the Library of Congress Police to rejoin the U.S. Capitol Police and it folded in 2009 after 59 years.



A lion at the park takes his ease.
National Zoo Police Chief Tim Kildea was hired about eight months ago after military service and 17 years in the Department of Veterans Affairs Police, yet another force in D.C. and nationwide. His department has “a long, tortured history,” Chief Kildea said. “We’re very low on the federal totem pole, and that doesn’t help with recruiting.”

The Wall Street Journal requested all National Zoo Police incident reports for a week in May. Lost children, overheating, falls, seizures and calls for medical aid are among common incidents.

Near Lemur Island, a boy “face planted,” and was treated at the zoo’s medical station.

Outside the Reptile Discovery Center, a woman got her head wedged in a bench. “She was feeling dizzy and overheated,” the report said. “She laid down to rest on the bench. She woke up a few minutes later with her head stuck.” D.C. firefighters sawed off the armrest to free her.

One police report detailed the escape and capture of a white-naped crane at the National Zoo’s research campus in Front Royal, Va.

Officers are called for the rare jailbreaks, Sgt. Gaskins said, but zookeepers do the heavy lifting to corral fugitives. “Usually,” he says, “once we’re needed, it is not about recapture.”

Sgt. Gaskins has never fired his sidearm in the line of duty, he said, and he hopes he never has to.

Night patrol is different. “It feels like you’re the one who’s being watched,” he said. Cheetahs race alongside squad cars. One gorilla bangs a window twice when officers lock up.



A seal is on the other side of the glass.
On a recent day patrol in the Small Mammal House, there’s a loud screech. Sgt. Gaskins stops. A male red ruffed lemur, a critically endangered animal native to Madagascar, strides across a branch and embraces a female red ruffed lemur.



“Uh oh,” Sgt. Gaskins says. “They need some privacy.” He walks on. Zoo-goers gape.

Before joining the zoo police, Sgt. Gaskins worked for nearly 17 years for the Smithsonian Office of Protective Services, a separate police agency. One assignment was at the National Museum of Natural History, which features gems, dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animals.

“At Natural History, I was watching the animals that were dead, and here we watch the animals that are alive,” Sgt. Gaskins said. “Here, it is completely opposite. But I love it.”


link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/o...2?mod=hp_featst_pos5

 
My first job out of college was at St. Elizabeth hospital, basically the state mental hospital for DC. It dates back to the Civil War, when it was used as a regular hospital for wounded soldiers.
 
Anyway, I worked on the non-resident wards (patients brought in for observation who did not reside in DC, but were picked up there). The "standard" for a 72 hour involuntary hospitalization was "danger to themselves or others", and this judgement could be made by any officer in DC who had arrest powers.
 
We learned, even back then (early 1970s) that there were almost 100 police "forces" who had arrest powers in DC. Our most frequent "customer" force was the White House Executive Protection Service, who manned the gate houses at the WH. Amazing the number of people who would travel to DC to see the President for relief from their delusions, or because the President "told" them to come. At that time, we averaged 1 admission per day from the WH, and the EPS claimed that for every one they brought us, they managed to talk 2 into leaving voluntarily.

Every agency in DC wants to have their own little Army

Not long ago the wife and I were at an indoor range not too far from DC. In the next lane were three guys who had the appearance/demeanor of cops/secret service/etc. Two of them were obviously qualifying under the direction of the third. During a break I asked what agency they were with. The answer? HUD.

Yes, every Federal department has their own armed officers.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Every agency in DC wants to have their own little Army

That's why every little podunk police force has a SWAT team.

quote:

Two of them were obviously qualifying under the direction of the third. During a break I asked what agency they were with. The answer? HUD.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I knew a guy who worked for them. In charge of evictions and checking on suspicious activity. They need a police presence when calling on some of these folks. It is not Mister Rogers neighborhood.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Two of them were obviously qualifying under the direction of the third. During a break I asked what agency they were with. The answer? HUD.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I knew a guy who worked for them. In charge of evictions and checking on suspicious activity. They need a police presence when calling on some of these folks. It is not Mister Rogers neighborhood.

I can see that, but why not enlist the assistance of the local PD (who at least have some stake in the community)?

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Two of them were obviously qualifying under the direction of the third. During a break I asked what agency they were with. The answer? HUD.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I knew a guy who worked for them. In charge of evictions and checking on suspicious activity. They need a police presence when calling on some of these folks. It is not Mister Rogers neighborhood.

I can see that, but why not enlist the assistance of the local PD (who at least have some stake in the community)?

Don't know. Guess they are handy. LOL

Cornyism, and a way to increase the budgets, people, and projects under their authority. (AKA, how w bureaucrat shows "progress" in his career.)

THe Veterans Administration has a rather robust police force. Forgotten about them.

The USPS has the Postal Police, Postal Inspectors and OIG(Office of Inspector General)

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Two of them were obviously qualifying under the direction of the third. During a break I asked what agency they were with. The answer? HUD.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I knew a guy who worked for them. In charge of evictions and checking on suspicious activity. They need a police presence when calling on some of these folks. It is not Mister Rogers neighborhood.

I can see that, but why not enlist the assistance of the local PD (who at least have some stake in the community)?

You would tie up a lot of resources if you sent the local PD on every eviction.

Why can't all these small federal groups be under the FBI or something? Why do we need individual investigation / enforcement groups? I mean what does a zoo director know about running a law enforce team

If PERF (Police Executive Research Foundation) had their way all these specialized agencies AND local, state, and federal organizations would be disbanded in favor of a single NATIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT. Think there's a lack of accountability among large law enforcement agencies now? Think about what kind of service you'd get in your city, from an organization based on the FBI model.