NPS pledges to hire more female law enforcement rangers; Blue Ridge Parkway staffing?

ASHEVILLE — In all her experience with the National Park Service since 1996, Deborah Flowers was the only female working in law enforcement operations, until she came to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Now, as acting chief ranger at the parkway, Flowers has committed herself over the past 10 years to increase female presence and diversify the law enforcement staff.

“It wasn’t until I got here on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2009, that I actually had the opportunity to work with other women,” Flowers told the Citizen Times earlier in December.

“It was really good to work with women where we could share some of our challenges, to just have that ability to work together. So, it was important to me that I tried to carry that through the rest of my career.”

In November, the NPS joined a coalition of local, state and federal law enforcement organizations across the nation that have all signed on to increase representation of female officers in the United States to 30% by the year 2030, called the 30X30 pledge. Of the 266 participating agencies, some big names include the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Capitol Police and the U.S. Secret Service.

According to Janet Kelleher, who oversees the recruitment and hiring of field law enforcement officers with NPS at the national level, the 30% benchmark is specific and important.

“Thirty percent is the threshold at which a minority within a larger group becomes self-sustaining,” Kelleher told the Citizen Times earlier this month. “It’s the point at which, as a minority population, you have a significant impact on the culture that is self-perpetuating.”

“Research shows that increasing the percentages of women in law enforcement has a number of positive organizational and policing outcomes, including fewer uses of force, increases in positive community perceptions around the honesty and compassion of officers, as well as fewer discretionary arrests,” Kelleher said.

Parkway bears: Blue Ridge Parkway closed near Asheville due to human-black bear interaction

Currently, women represent 16% of the entire NPS law enforcement workforce, the release said. Separated by different divisions, women represent 17% of the law enforcement ranger workforce and 12.5% of the U.S. Park Police workforce, according to Cynthia.

Of the 100 new law enforcement rangers hired in fiscal year 2023, approximately 20% were female and 25% were non-white, the news release said.

What does law enforcement at the Blue Ridge Parkway look like?

Flowers and the rest of parkway staff have already successfully reached the goal, hitting a benchmark of 30% women in law enforcement for the past five years. Of those women, 40% are in leadership positions, Flowers said.

Their success in expanding the number of women represented in law enforcement comes down to their ability to recruit and “make a conscious effort to diversifying our workforce,” according to Flowers.

Flowers also attributed some of this success to their NPS seasonal program, where they send rangers to Southwest Community College to help instruct, which “really gives us the ability to see new rangers and to show them that they can do this job, too. And just to be able to see someone that looks like them.”

Ranger duties at the parkway include the protection of the park's natural and cultural resources and keeping visitors safe, spokesperson Leesa Brandon said. This involves a variety of responsibilities in any given year, including monitoring boundary encroachments, helping with traffic safety, providing security for buildings and facilities, assisting visitors in need both with information and medical emergencies, and more.

“The NPS law enforcement program protects people from all backgrounds and identities,” Flowers said. “It’s essential that the law enforcement workforce reflects the diversity of the nation and the people we protect, and locally to the communities we serve in. I think that goes to the heart of what the 30/30 plan is all about.”

Kelleher said that NPS is working to reach the 30% goal through:

• Doing outreach specifically to women that may be interested in law enforcement careers,

• Highlighting the work of female rangers throughout NPS in recruitment materials, such as NPS’s podcast called “My Park Story,”

• Engaging with workgroups within the agency on how to do a better job at retaining officers.

In 2022, the NPS removed what Kelleher called a “significant restriction” to their hiring process. Previously, applicants had to pay their way through an initial academy before they could apply for a permanent job. Now, NPS hires permanent positions and pays for their training at its Law Enforcement Training Center.

Protection rangers: What does it take to be a National Park Service law enforcement ranger?

Job opportunities with NPS

Brandon said the parkway anticipates hiring four rangers in the coming year, which will be posted on USAJobs.gov.

Applications to join the U.S. Park Police can be completed at USAJobs.gov. More information on how to become a law enforcement ranger can be found at https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/become-a-law-enforcement-ranger.htm.

Salaries in these positions vary based on locality, and salaries for rangers are based on the federal GL pay scale, according to Kelleher. Pay ranges for park police positions range from $65,486 to $71,249 per year, and range from $52,921 to $76,154 for park rangers, according to job postings.

“This is the best organization I think that I’ve ever worked for,” Flowers said. “I would encourage anyone who thinks that they want to be a part of emergency services to consider the National Park Service.”

Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Blue Ridge Parkway, NPS commit to increase females in law enforcement