Law Enforcement Officials

Park Rangers

Individuals who are sexually assaulted in the almost 400 national parks in the U.S. National Park Service often include tourists—individuals who are in unfamiliar and often remote areas. Park rangers carry out law enforcement duties in national parks; the U.S. Park Police perform concurrent duties with rangers in some urban park sites such as the National Mall (Washington, D.C.), Statue of Liberty (New York), and Golden Gate (San Francisco).⁶⁵ The FBI also has jurisdiction regarding sexual assault cases in national parks.

By including park rangers on SARTs, teams can increase victim safety, enhance investigations, and facilitate referrals among other law enforcement jurisdictions and community-based service providers. For example, the Cuyahoga County SART invited the Cleveland Metro Rangers to join them. Cleveland's city parks had had a large number of sexual assaults by offenders known to victims and same-sex sexual assaults by offenders not known to victims.⁶⁶ Their participation on the SART has linked the park rangers with more resources that they may tap to promote public safety and has helped rangers refer victims for needed services.