Law enforcement changes coming to Georgia state parks | www.myajc.com

Worried that fewer law enforcement officers will be at work in Georgia’s state parks, conservation groups asked the Department of Natural Resources Tuesday to hold off on plans to reorganize how it polices its properties.

State officials are adamant, however, that visitors’ usage and enjoyment of the state park system will not change. The plans would streamline five separate enforcement units within DNR into one division. Visitors, they said, will see no reduction in the 200 full-time law enforcement officers serving the state parks, though some employees no longer will do part-time enforcement work.

The consolidation will be phased in through 2018. DNR’s governing board is expected to vote in June on new rules related to the changes.

DNR Deputy Commissioner Homer Bryson said the plans continue work begun in 2010 to make the department’s law enforcement operations “more effective and more efficient.”

What has conservationists most upset are plans to phase out part-time policing work done by on-site park staff, including park managers, who are known as deputy conservation rangers. There are more than 80 such deputies working in the state park system, many of whom juggle several duties.

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