WDFW - Abuse Of Power or Unequal Discretion

[KillBilly]

Dale, one thing you might be able to approach them on is the inconsistency in regulation interpretation. It is general knowledge that each enforcement officer is allowed to interrupt a reg. the way they see fit. Their Supervisors will attest to that. The issue here would be that the door is wide open for violations of citizens rights & unequal discretion by WDFW enforcement officers.

It may give them something to think about when they look into root causes or potential causes.

[bearpaw]

That is one of the areas of concern. Officers probably need to be able to use some discretion but it has been questioned if that is being unfairly used at times. Of coarse that is tough to measure since everyone may judge what is fair differently than the next person. I will pass on your comment.

[dreamunelk]

It would be interesting to hear the examples of abuse.  I am willing to bet these are all people who violated a law or were reported as such.  Many landowners feel they can destroy salmon habitat or kill what ever they want just because they own land that these species use.  When a neighbor reports them for straightening out a creek or cutting down an eagles nest or shooting an elk in thier back yard out of season they always scream about their rights.

Good rule of thumb is when they say their rights have been violated there is an entire different side of the story.

[boneaddict]

I agree Killbilly, and it lends to the belief that some play favorites with friends and family or opens things up for discrimination.  Granted, its not necessarily the officers fault because many of the regulations seem really open ended or up for interpretation.  

[bearpaw]

Without a doubt there are two sides or more to every story. I think the legislators are only interested in reports of significant abuse or unequal discretion. The idea was to try and identify if there was a widespread problem or just isolated incidents.

I am happy to say that I only know of three or four instances that will be reported to the legislators. Only one instance has been brought to my attention from this forum's members. There may be other complaints reported by other menbers of the group that I don't know about yet.

I will say that I believe everyone reporting an incident thus far seems to have a legitimate complaint and seems to be an upstanding person. Not one person has complained to me just because they did something wrong and got busted. I think that in itself speaks highly of the hunting community and of the majority of our wildlife officers.

In respecting people's rights to privacy that is all I will say concerning specific complaints.

Since getting involved in this affair I have heard far more complaints from the general public about game wardens acting as state police and forest rangers rather than concentrating on being game wardens for fish and wildlife.

[CoryTDF]

I don't have any complaints other than possibly having somebody who speaks English write the regulations. They can be very confusing to say the least. I know ignorance of the law is no excuse, however, some of the regulations are misleading. It just seems like they could  make an effort to try and simplify boundaries or add better maps. I think that everybody can agree that there are parts of the regs that don't make much sense.  Not sure how related this is to your topic but it's just my

[Kain]

Since getting involved in this affair I have heard far more complaints from the general public about game wardens acting as state police and forest rangers rather than concentrating on being game wardens for fish and wildlife.

I would be all for them acting like state police or forest rangers if all money from tickets went back to WDFW.    You spend the resources you get the money.  You would have the different agencies fighting to get law breakers.

[bearpaw]

It seems a little frustrating to me that our limited number of enforcement officers are now spending time on other issues rather than patrolling for wildlife violations.

And it would make a little more sense if those fines are going to F&W, but i do not know if that is the case, does anyone know?

[Bob33]

I've had several enforcement officers from King County attend our hunter education classes.  They've gone out of their way to make themselves available, including giving out 24 hour cell phone numers.  They've also said that while they are fully authorized to carry out all law enforcement duties (traffic stops, domestic violence, etc.) they will only do that under very unusual circumstances: someone swerves by them at 100 miles per hour, a spouse is holding a spouse at gunpoint, etc.

I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for all the enforcement officers I've been fortunate to meet, and I've been hunting in Washington for about 46 years.

[SHANE(WA)]

POS Weatherman ferry county warden. Tim Hood retired is another, illegal searches and got caught pos

[300rum]

They have a good one in Goldendale.  Does a great job, very helpful.

There was a gal that checked me dove hunting a few times in the Yakima area.  She was never in uniform which bugged me and would walk in front of the dove field instead of coming from the side or behind, which ruined our hunt.  I did appreciate though, that she just asked if we had the plug in and asked that we try to put more than 2 shells in the magazine.  I don't ask to look at their gun and I particularly don't want to give them mine, especially when they are not in uniform.

[bearpaw]

POS Weatherman ferry county warden. Tim Hood retired is another, illegal searches and got caught pos

Not sure what this means shane?

[yelp]

POS Weatherman ferry county warden. Tim Hood retired is another, illegal searches and got caught pos

I know both and have been checked by both twice.  Professional and courteous each time. 

[SHANE(WA)]

I know enough about those 2, enough said. What about all the others that have been fired lol bunch of people with a badge abusing their power as always. I have very few kind words for any of them, met very few that were cool, but there are some.

[bowhunterforever]

I have heard some bad stories about tim hood.