Too Opinionated Interview: Paul Berkowitz

Paul Berkowitz is the nation’s leading authority on the history and evolution of law enforcement in the National Park Service (NPS). He has served as an expert witness in federal court, and as a guest instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He is the author of several books about NPS law enforcement, and continues to write and serve as an instructor and guest speaker at police academies, colleges and universities, and seminars across the country.

A recent report by CBS News cites that as federal policies and staffing levels rapidly change in the name of government efficiency, park and historical sites across the United States are in jeopardy of losing out on important federal protections. The National Park System Advisory Board was quietly dissolved in May. Across the entire National Park Service, 13 percent of employees were pushed out since January, a loss of up to 3,000 workers. With nearly $1 billion in budget cuts to the National Park Service proposed for next year, national parks advocates estimate 350 additional historical, cultural or natural sites nationwide are at risk of closing. Add to this dilemma, the fact that park staff was already reduced and overworked before the Trump Administration cuts began.

Paul uncovered a fascinating history of crime and crime-fighting in our national parks and forests that goes back over a century. His research and writing have served to debunk many of the popular myths about the “ranger image,” shedding light on the critical law enforcement role that rangers have long played in our national parks and other public lands. Much of this research was first chronicled in his seminal book, U.S. Rangers – the Law of the Land (CAT Publishing, 1991 – 1995). 

Paul’s career was also distinguished by his role as a whistleblower, reporting, writing, and even testifying before a Congressional subcommittee about government corruption, up to and including illegal bugging activities and cover-up of high-level management misconduct. Some of those events and activities are chronicled in his award-winning book, The Case of the Indian Trader: Billy Malone and the National Park Service Investigation at Hubbell Trading Post (University of New Mexico Press, 2011).*

Paul’s third book, Legacy of the Yosemite Mafia – the Ranger Image and Noble Cause Corruption in the National Park Service (Trine Day LLC, 2017) draws upon much of his previous research, writing, and personal experience to expose and demonstrate how the failure of the NPS to acknowledge or appreciate its actual history – both good and bad – has undercut credibility, alienating impacted individuals and communities and ultimately impeding the agency in the fulfillment of its statutory mission.

 

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