The recent spread of law enforcement-related malaise hasn’t eluded cops tasked with overseeing some of the more idyllic parts of the United States.
According to details of a leaked Office of Personnel Management survey published this week, the US Forest Service police force is overseen by officials who have fostered a morale-sapping culture of fear that appears to be reinforcing itself.
Almost fifty percent of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations (LE) employees who responded to the survey complained of a “fear of reprisal” for blowing the whistle on “a violation of any law, rule or regulation.”
Only one in five said that promotions “are based on merit,” while three in five said that management allows “favoritism.”
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)–a non-profit that describes itself as representing government natural resource workers “dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values”–obtained and published the results of the survey, which it described as “dismal.”
“These latest results were generally more negative than the 2013 survey in which [LE] consistently was the most negative of all Forest Service branches,” the group said in a statement issued Wednesday. “The latest assessments of top leadership are simply jaw-dropping.” Almost 70 percent of respondents also said they “have low regard for integrity and honesty” of LE leadership, while less than one in seven expressed satisfaction with senior leaders’ “policies and practices.” Both percentages represented half the Forest Service average satisfaction rate, PEER said.
“These survey numbers are worse than public approval ratings for Congress,” the group’s executive director Jeff Ruch stated, before calling for the firing of Forest Service LE Director David Ferrell.
The revelations are not exactly new, either. PEER claimed to have discovered similar levels of LE employee discontent with management in March after conducting its own survey, and said that the move led to an embarrassing internal review. PEER said Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell held an LE electronic townhall that “produced a new cascade of negative comments” about LE top brass, which were kept secret by senior department leaders.
“Despite a PEER Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Forest Service is still resisting release of those comments,” the group said. PEER said that Forest Service leaders released a “Content Analysis” which it described as “blistering, even as paraphrased.”
After that March survey, according to The Seattle Times, Ruch claim that a “boys with toys” mindset has led to LE acquiring “Taser shock guns, rugged Toughbook computers and other equipment without input from officers in the field.”
The Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
The federal agency manages some 193 million acres of land, 20 national recreation areas, six national scenic areas, six national monument areas, two national volcanic monument areas, and a pair of national historic areas. It describes the Law Enforcement and Investigations Program as having “a robust capacity for responding to incidents of all kinds, including emergency response on wildfires.” The Forest Service states that LE officers also “help protect people and property,” and “conduct criminal and civil investigations to protect property and wildland resources.”
In 2014, the Forest Service reported that its law enforcement arm employed the equivalent of 729 full-time workers and received more than $126 million in federal appropriations.
