America and the great Baptist Church in such an unbelievable manner. I deplore the decisions of the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior which deny to them the same privileges accorded to another group which has descended upon Washington and been given an official permit to set up an encampment on park lands.

The people of this Nation will not long tolerate such abuses by their Government.

PARK POLICE

Mr. GUDE. Mr. Castro, you spoke about the arrest procedure. You have 308 patrolmen in the police force?

Mr. CASTRO. Mr. Gude, we have 363 authorized police positions in the organization. Fifty-five of these were authorized in the current fiscal year, meaning 1969. However, because of the very rigid personnel restrictions we have now, we cannot fill them.

As a matter of fact, out of 363 authorized positions we have 277 filled as of today.

Mr. GUDE. Your park policemen receive the same pay increase as the District police?

Mr. CASTRO. Yes, sir.

Mr. GUDE. Has this made any difference?

Mr. CASTRO. I am sure it has. Chief Wright can address himself to that better than I can.

Chief WRIGHT. We have many more applicants appearing. We can give more encouragement toward employment.

Mr. GUDE. You say you cannot fill the positions? Why?

Mr. CASTRO. Because of the restrictions imposed on us by the Congress and the Bureau of the Budget.

Mr. GUDE. In the course of their duties, your officers have to make arrests in the same manner as the Metropolitan Police, in such areas as DuPont Circle?

Mr. CASTRO. We exercise concurrent jurisdiction, but because it is a park the presence of the U.S. Park Police is more evident than that of the Metropolitan Police, although the Metropolitan Police make arrests there, also.

Mr. GUDE. As far as the workload is concerned, to a certain extent your officers are handicapped in the same way the Metropolitan Police are?

Mr. CASTRO. More so. The District Government does not have to observe personnel ceiling restrictions as we have to observe them. In other words, if they are authorized to fill 3,000 positions they can fill them as long as they are able to get men.

In our case because of our ceiling problems we cannot fill perhaps over 300 of them. This is my problem.

Because of personnel ceiling limitation, we can fill only 1,269 of our authorized 1,590 positions.

Mr. GUDE. It was not the intent of Congress in cutting funds that it should apply to police of the National Capital Parks or anywhere else in the government sphere.

To get back to the job of the policemen who worked under you, I wondered about this backlog in the Court of General Sessions and

in the Juvenile Court which the previous witness mentioned. Does this handicap you to the extent that your officers are performing police functions to the same extent it handicaps Metropolitan Police?

Chief WRIGHT. That is right.

Mr. GUDE. The solution here is to do something about additional judges in both those courts.

Mr. CASTRO. I would think so.

Mr. GUDE. Also I imagine you have trouble with alcoholics in the parks?

Mr. CASTRO. That is right.

Mr. GUDE. If we did something for their treatment and care, this would relieve some of the load on your men.

Mr. CASTRO. Indeed.

Mr. ADAMS. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to indicate that we have found Title 36, Section 3.20, 3.21, 3.22 with the various designations of park policy.

In referring to part 50 I wanted to ask the gentleman whether or not they have now begun to break down Title 36 into parts as has been done in the other sections of the Code which are not up to date? Mr. CASTRO. The regulations have been recodified.

Mr. ADAMS. There have been some remarks by the gentleman from Virginia about my questions and what I was trying to establish. I happen to have been on Boy Scout Jamborees. Leaving aside politics and the age, as I remember it, we all dug camp fires, we all had a tent and all lived in the area and when we left I am certain that a certain number of things had to be done physically to restore the

area.

We will not get into political discussions for the moment, about the age of these people, but instead discuss what they do with the property. Mr. DowDY. I worked with the Boy Scouts for many years before I came to Congress. I was District Chairman, and had many jamborees. One of the requirements I put on the boys was always to restore the area. They always did a fine job in doing this and we never had a complaint from anyone who granted the use of his premises.

Mr. GUDE. I, too, worked with the Boy Scouts. I remember many Jamborees on Monument Grounds.

You spoke of these five groups being consolidated. I wondered to what extent you have daily contact or need for coordination with the police at the Zoological Park and the White House.

Mr. CASTRO. I can speak with respect to the White House Police because the White House is part of the National Park System. Although we do not have jurisdiction within the confines of the 18 acre area the White House Police exert jurisdiction there we have jurisdiction on the outside along South Executive, East Executive, West Executive, and the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. We post men there every day to assist tourists and traffic.

Mr. BROYHILL. I was amazed to hear the gentleman from Washington imply that someone else was politically motivated here this morning, and apparently implying that he never gets political in the colloquy or statements he makes around here.

I will confess that knowingly or unknowingly, I sometimes bring politics into some of my approaches to questions. I might go so far as to say, Mr. Castro-and I want to commend you on the manner you have conducted yourself this morning; your statements and answers to questions have been very effective but if you were at liberty to give a factual and complete appraisal as to what happened here, an interpretation of these happenings, and what factors led to the decision to grant this permit, you would have to admit there were politics involved in the Department of the Interior's decision in this matter.

Mr. CASTRO. I am perfectly at liberty to answer any questions you wish to ask about Resurrection City.

Mr. BROYHILL. Was politics involved in that decision?

Mr. CASTRO. Mr. Broyhill, I don't work in the area of politics. I am a Park Administrator.

Mr. BROYHILL. You said you could answer the questions. I did not expect you to answer, but you said you could.

Mr. CASTRO. I can.

Mr. BROYHILL. Then I ask you whether politics was involved.

Mr. CASTRO. No, sir, politics was not involved; within my knowledge it was not involved.

Mr. BROYHILL. Not within your knowledge.

Let the record show that I am laughing, and also disagreeing. Mr. CASTRO. I should make this statement to you: This was a difficult problem for us. Needless to say, it was the most strenuous job I have ever handled in my quarter century in the Park Service.

I said before that we have no hidden agendas on this. It was a business proposition for us, such as a request to demonstrate in Lafayette Park is. Because of special circumstances it was much more difficult than usual, but literally speaking, whether there was politics involved, certainly not on my part or on the part of any of the people with whom I work.

Mr. BROYHILL. I accept the fact that you are a professional career man who does his job as best he can, without regard to politics. I hope I didn't imply anything else in my remarks. However, you work for a political organization, and there are politicians in the Department of the Interior. I happen to know some of them.

Mr. CASTRO. To my mind

Mr. ADAMS. If I may finish my reply. If I indicated to the gentleman from Virginia in any way that I am not a political animal and one willing to fight political issues with him, I certainly want to correct that impression. I have disputed his politics in the past and will in the future, and I expect that will continue indefinitely.

My remarks were that the gentleman testifying is not involved in the political business and I didn't want him to be involved in a discussion of the political philosophy of the group involved.

My comments as to political connotations or complexions of the group referred to Resurrection City itself, and I said that setting aside for a moment the politics of what people there believed or what they wanted to say or why they were here, if they were here to lobby or not, there are pyhsical things that the Park Service has to do whenever anybody comes to town, whether it is a Boy Scout Jamboree or some

thing else. The Boy Scouts were not here politically. Perhaps Resurrection City people were. I think, however, the American Legion comes for polítical purposes. They make that clear. There are groups, other than the Resurrection City people who come here politically.

I do not think we should lean on the servants of the Park Service with regard to the political coloration of the group that uses one of the parks. They have to treat them all the same.

I agree with the witness' comments that this was a difficult situation. The next one may be a difficult situation, too. I am glad he is there because I believe he has done his duty well.

Mr. NELSEN. You referred to yourself as an animal. I don't think that is a good term.

We have other witnesses. I wonder if we could get on with the other witnesses.

I want to confess I never belonged to the Boy Scouts. I am sorry.
Mr. ADAMS. That is the loss of the Boy Scouts.

Mr. CASTRO. In my mind, and I say this in complete honesty, the decision we made was not a political decision. It was a management decision-right or wrong. That is my conviction.

Mr. BROYHLL. I would like to associate my remarks with those made by Mr. Adams. I did not want to imply that you were in anyway politically motivated in this matter.

Mr. GUDE. I think it is worthy of note in the consideration of this bill that this hiring which has been levied by the Bureau of the Budget is hampering your operation.

Mr. CASTRO. Very much so. We have asked the Interior Department to try and exempt us from this requirement as it applies to the Park Police.

Mr. GUDE. Very good.

Mr. Dowdy. Thank you, gentlemen.

The next witness will be on behalf of the National Zoological Park Police, Carl Sadler, Legislative Representative, Norman Jordan and, Charles Van Tassel and Stephen Koczak.

STATEMENTS OF CARL SADLER, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE AND STEPHEN KOCZAK, ASSISTANT RESEARCH DIRECTOR, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES; AND NORMAN E. JORDAN, HOWARD J. MOORE, AND CHARLES VAN TASSEL, NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK POLICE

Mr. SADLER. I am Carl K. Sadler, the Legislative Director for the American Federation of Government Employees.

The gentleman on my immediate right is Mr. Stephen Koczak, our Assistant Research Director.

The gentleman on my left is Mr. Norman E. Jordan, President of the Zoological Police Lodge.

On my far right is Mr. Charles Van Tassel, Secretary-Treasurer, and Howard J. Moore, Vice President, of this Lodge.

We appreciate, Mr. Chairman, the introduction by Mr. McMillan of H.R. 14430, which was co-sponsored by: Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Dowdy, Mr. Hagan, Mr. Fuqua, Mr. O’Konski, Mr. Winn, Mr. Steiger of Ari

zona, and Mr. Broyhill of Virginia; and the introduction of H.R. 14448 by Subcommittee Chairman Basil L. Whitener.

SUPPORT OF BILL

For many years the American Federation of Government Employees has felt that the law enforcement in the District of Columbia should be under one head. We believe that this approach of having a Commissioner of Police appointed is a good one. As provided in Sec. 2 of the Bill:

"(a) There are transferred to the Police Commissioner the functions, powers, and duties of-(1) the Commissioner of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Council with respect to the Metropolitan Police force; (2) the Secretary of the Interior with respect to the United States Park Police in the District of Columbia; (3) the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to the White House Police; (4) the Sergeants at Arms of the House of Representatives and the Senate and the Capitol Police Board with respect to the Capitol police; and (5) the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution with respect to the National Zoological Park police force.

(b) The Police Commissioner may establish such review boards as he deems advisable. The Police Commissioner may appoint and fix the compensation of such personnel as he deems advisable to carry out his functions, powers, and duties under this Act, subject to the provisions of Title 5, United States Code, relating to appointments in the competitive service, classification, and General Schedule pay rates. "(c) As soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Police Commissioner shall make recommendations to Congress for the enactment of such legislation as may be necessary to make the police forces under his jurisdiction subject to the same provisions for appointments, promotions, dismissals, compensation, retirement, and similar matters.

"(d) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to—(1) authorize the Police Commissioner to combine any of the police forces under his jurisdiction or transfer any officer or member of a police force under his jurisdiction to a position in another police force under his jurisdiction without the prior consent of such officer or member; or (2) affect the rights and privileges under personnel laws and regulations in effect before the date of the enactment of this Act of any officer or member of a police force under the jurisdiction of the Police Commissioner."

BENEFITS FROM THIS BILL

We are confident that the enactment of this legislation would eliminate the many barriers and pitfalls we have read about in the newspapers concerning our law enforcement department and that it will permit uniformity throughout the District of Columbia. Likewise there would be one set of rules and regulations, which would in our opinion improve the morale of the personnel of all these groups and would tend to make law enforcement much more efficient. We trust that this Committee will approve legislation along these lines and let it be tried for a few years. We predict that there will be no desire to