Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (HI)
Follow-up on Murder of Ranger Steve Makuakane-Jarrell
On March 18th, U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway found that F.E.B.
F.E.B.III is competent to stand trail and is able to assist in his
defense. F.E.B. is charged in the December 12, 1999, murder of ranger
Steve Makuakane-Jarrell at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical
Park A trial date of August 3, 2004 has been set.
Dry Tortugas National Park (FL)
Cuban Refugees Land in Park
Campers at the park's Garden Key campground heard loud cheering and
whistling coming from the south swim beach just past midnight on March
19th. Park employees were contacted; when they arrived at the
beach, they discovered ten men singing in Spanish and dancing and
determined that they had left Cuba two days prior in hopes of reaching
the United States and being granted political asylum. The group had
navigated from Cuba in a twelve-foot fishing boat powered by an
antique-looking, single-cylinder diesel engine. The winds at the time
were 15 to 25 knots, with seas at 5 to 7 feet. The men were all mildly
dehydrated and hungry, but otherwise in good health. Park employees,
with assistance from campers, gave the men food and water and held them
in crew quarters at Fort Jefferson. Arrangements to move them were made
with the Coast Guard the following morning. The cutter Pea Island
transported the group to Miami for processing. Prior to leaving,
one of the men handed over a set of car keys and house keys and stated
in Spanish that he didn't need them anymore because he was a free man
and he was never going back to Cuba.
[Submitted by Willie Lopez, Site
Supervisor]
Grand Teton National Park (WY)
Rescue from the Grand Teton
On Friday, March 12th, rangers rescued an injured climber from the Grand
Teton after she fell a thousand feet while descending from the summit
area. B.D., 27, and her climbing partner, Matt Neuner, 25, both
from Jackson, Wyoming, were reported as overdue when they failed to
return from a one-day climb of the Grand Teton on Thursday. The pair had
been benighted near the Teton summit. They were descending from the
Upper Saddle on Friday when B.D. fell and tumbled approximately 1,000
feet, coming to rest near the Black Dyke at the mountain's 12,000 foot
level. Climbers near the Lower Saddle responded to Neuner's call for
help, and one of them skied down Garnet Canyon to notify rangers. The
descending skier met with rangers who had begun a search in Garnet
Canyon for the overdue climbers. The Teton County contract helicopter
was available and ferried the rangers to the Lower Saddle. The rangers
climbed from there to B.D.'s position, assessed her injuries, and
prepared her for transport off the mountain. Due to daylight
constraints, deteriorating weather conditions and the severity of her
injuries, rescuers undertook a short-haul operation. The patient,
immobilized on a rescue litter, was lifted off the mountain with
attending ranger Chris Harder via a 100-foot long line and transported
to a landing zone at Moose. B.D. was transferred to an air ambulance
helicopter from Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and flown to the
trauma center in Idaho Falls. At the time of this report, B.D. had been
released from intensive care and was slowly recovering from a severe
head injury.[Submitted by Andy Fisher, District Ranger]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Law Enforcement and Emergency Services
Study Of Assaults Against Law Enforcement Rangers Begins
In their evaluation of the NPS law enforcement program, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) observed that NPS rangers suffer the highest per capita rate of assaults of any Federal law enforcement agency*. A number of actions to improve equipment and training, as recommended by the IACP and others, are underway.
A careful epidemiological investigation of this disturbing condition will provide additional information and direction. This data may inform rangers, their supervisors and managers when making strategic and tactical decisions affecting work place safety. It may also identify further improvements in behaviors, training or equipment to eliminate this problem. The first step in this study, as in any scientific investigation, is verification and quantification of the problem.
The NPS has partnered with Northern Arizona University's (NAU) College of Social & Behavioral Sciences - Department of Criminal Justice to:
1. Verify and quantify the IACP's findings.
2. Seek NPS procedures that might provide inaccurate statistics and therefore distort the problem.
3. Prepare a statistical and narrative analysis of the cases.
4. Provide written reports to the NPS that document the above findings.
5. Develop an investigative plan and budget to determine causation and recommendations for resolution of the work place safety problem. This plan may recommend such techniques as:
a. Interview involved rangers to determine their mental and physical preparedness, actual and perceived operating conditions etc.
b. Interview those persons arrested or convicted of assaults to determine their preparedness or conditions they perceived which gave rise to the assault.
c. Seek relevant differences between NPS training, preparedness, operating environment, program supervision or other conditions and those of other agencies.
d. Survey representative portions of NPS enforcement rangers and /or supervisors, managers as necessary etc to determine the distribution of the causative condition(s).
Personnel from NAU will be contacting parks to obtain copies of reports for this study. Anyone with information that may assist the study team in meeting these objectives is asked to contact:
Dr. Larry A. Gould
Northern Arizona University
College of Social & Behavioral Sciences - Department of Criminal Justice
P.O. Box 15700
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5765
928/523-9508
Larry.Gould@nau.edu
Interested parties may also contact Dennis Burnett, NPS Law Enforcement Program Administrator, who will oversee the work in close collaboration with FLETC. Dennis may be contacted at 202-513-7128 or at dennis_burnett@nps.gov
This study has received guidance and support from WASO Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, WASO Safety and Occupational Health and the Cooperative Ecological Study Unit at Northern Arizona University.
*Policing the National Parks: 21st Century Requirements. Page 4
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Grand Teton National Park/IMR
Jim Bellamy Named Deputy Superintendent for Grand Teton National Park
Jim Bellamy, a 30-year NPS veteran, will become the new deputy superintendent at Grand Teton National Park. Newly appointed Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott made the announcement; both Scott and Bellamy will arrive at Grand Teton in early May to begin their new positions.
Since 2002, Bellamy has served as chief of Cultural Resources Management for the Intermountain Region, based in Santa Fe. His staff, stationed in the Santa Fe and Denver offices, provides technical assistance to parks and partners in the disciplines of archeology, curation, cultural landscapes, historical architecture, and history. Bellamy also currently oversees operation of the Western Archeological and Conservation Center in Tucson.
Prior to assuming his position in Santa Fe, Bellamy served as acting superintendent at Saguaro National Park for one year, and as superintendent at Coronado National Memorial for four years. Bellamy began his NPS career as a seasonal laborer at Grand Teton in the 1960's. He later worked as both a seasonal climbing ranger (1975-76) and permanent park ranger (1977-79) at Grand Teton. In addition to his early park assignments, Bellamy spent five winters with the ski patrol at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village.
Bellamy also worked as a seasonal ranger at Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier, and Zion. His other permanent NPS assignments include: one year (1977) as a dispatcher in Zion; two years (1979-81) as a park ranger at Channel Islands; six years (1981-87) as a district ranger in Big Bend; four years (1987-91) as district ranger and one year (1992) as an assistant chief ranger at Glacier; two years (1992-94) at Great Basin as chief of Resource Management, Protection and Interpretation, and as acting superintendent of Great Basin (1995); and three years (1995-98) as the Servicewide training manager for Supervision, Management, and Leadership at Albright Training Center in Grand Canyon.
Bellamy earned a B.A. in physics from Park College in Missouri and pursued graduate studies in atmospheric sciences at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. He speaks Spanish, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile, and has traveled to several Latin American countries and Spain to provide technical assistance in park management. While at Big Bend, Bellamy worked closely with Mexican officials in preparing for the establishment of protected areas in northern Mexico. He was co-chair of the NPS-Mexico Affairs Steering Committee while at Coronado and Saguaro.
Bellamy's other interests include travel, photography, hiking, skiing, kayaking and rafting
[Submitted by Jackie Skaggs, Jackie_Skaggs@nps.gov, 307/739-3393] More Information...
Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.
Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.