Enforcement Survey

[woodywsu]

lol. Maybe the best place to work for. There wages and benefits are great, but as a program I'm damn sure they are not considered the best agency in the county.

[runamuk]

Not true, and its not even close.

According to whom? Pick up any law enforcement publication and they will say the same thing. Best pay, scheduling, equipment, and benefits in the country. WDFW has gotten a hand full of game wardens from several other states coming to WDFW in the past two years

well duh state agencies are paid way beyond whats realistic here in liberal tax happy, someone else is paying my wages, fat government... WA...

[bigtex]

as a program I'm damn sure they are not considered the best agency in the county.

I'm talking simply enforcement, not the agency as a whole. Ask any game warden from any state, they all say the same thing. WA is the best, which is why they are getting many out of state transfers, when just 5 years ago they didnt have any. I know in the past 2 years they have gotten game warden transfers from Cali, Montana, Idaho, New York, and Virgiina.

[Cougeyes]

These are excerpts from the link bigtex posted.

"Officers complain of the need for and inability to conduct night time patrols since poachers frequently work at night. Our
review of schedules confirms that night patrols are not common".

This is b.s. the officers want to conduct more patrols during peak time when a lot poaching happens (at night) but aren't necessarily allowed to.  They want to protect the resource but can't??  This is B.S.

"Foot and other off-road patrolsare increasingly uncommon. Backcountry and off-the road patrol are becoming fewer"

“Seasonal work load is high. There are times when I have more information about illegal activity than I can work. The other officers in my detachment feel the same. A fair amount of illegal hunting activity is being under addressed. We have time to do surveillance one or two times and then we are on to the next
series of complaints.”

Why can't we train state patrolmen to aid game officers when they are overloaded with work?  This should work both ways, game wardens help other agencies why can't they return the favor since any enforcement can write a citation for a wildlife infraction or at least hold the violater until a game warden can get there.  

“Remote areas are becoming dangerous and suffering damage because of a lackof enforcement patrols.” (Q11)Agreed

At least they're proposing more game wardens in each county.

[grundy53]

WDFW is considered to be the best natural resource agency in the country

 

 
 Bigtex really is head of their fan club isn't he... lol

[bigtex]

WDFW is considered to be the best natural resource agency in the country

 

 
 Bigtex really is head of their fan club isn't he... lol

Simply providing facts

[Bofire]

  A female Game agent in Fruitland area was puling people over and citing them for no seatbelt!!
Carl

[bigtex]

Why can't we train state patrolmen to aid game officers when they are overloaded with work?  This should work both ways, game wardens help other agencies why can't they return the favor since any enforcement can write a citation for a wildlife infraction or at least hold the violater until a game warden can get there.  

Any law enforcement officer in the state can enforce hunting and fishing laws, their agencies just don’t want them to. Unfortunately most people (non-outdoorsmen) don’t really think wildlife enforcement is a high priority and would rather have WSP doing speed and DUI enforcement rather then wildlife enforcement. Last year WSP got an additional 20 positions for a DUI team in King/Pierce/Snohomish Counties, but WDFW enforcement budget got reduced. Driving laws are more important to the legislature then WDFW laws. You see the same thing in Oregon, when budget cuts come the OSP fish and wildlife division gets cut more then road troopers. Some of the smaller counties let their deputies do it but you wont see the bigger counties do it. And in these economic times when most agencies are reducing their law enforcement positions you will not see chiefs/sheriffs wanting their officers to assisting wildlife patrols when they can be dealing with more “important crimes”.

Unfortunately the ways to actually write hunting and fishing citations are different then other tickets, and if you write the ticket wrong then the case is gone. There is a reason why it takes a month of training to teach WDFW officers how to write hunting/fishing tickets and reports. And this isn’t by choice but rather how the courts require officers to write them. One WSP trooper told me that WSP enforcement is like elementary math, but WDFW Enforcement is like calculus.

[Curly]

A female Game agent in Fruitland area was puling people over and citing them for no seatbelt!!
Carl

Speaking of seatbelt laws.....am I required to wear a seatbelt when out on gravel roads (DNR or Weyerhauser land)?  It makes it a lot slower to have to unbuckle my seat-belt before I jump out of the truck to shoot a deer.  I don't want to get a ticket from a Warden for not having a seat-belt on, but sometimes when out scouting in Capital Forest or wherever I may take the seat-belt off for a while on the back roads.

[bigtex]

I've heard that their jobs are tougher in this time of cutbacks because prosecutors are pushing wildlife laws to lower and lower priorities----basically encouraging more wildlife crime.  I was also told before that game wardens were having to spend more and more time with their vehicles or in close proximity to them because criminals would view them as an easy score for guns/scanners/gear.

Several county prosecutors are saying that they will no longer prosecute fish and wildlife laws because of the budget, the Island County prosecutor even announced this on a TV news interview. So what will happen is a WDFW Officer will give you a ticket and if you plea not guilty then the case will be dropped. Wonderful isn’t it? This happened several years ago in Spokane County (when budgets were fine, the prosecutor just didn’t want to deal with WDFW crimes) and it took the governor calling the county council before something was changed.

There has been a recent “attack” on WDFW enforcement vehicles the past 3 or 4 years. Not uncommon to have an officer come back to their truck having a window smashed or tire slashed. Some have had gear stolen out of their trucks.

[bigtex]

A female Game agent in Fruitland area was puling people over and citing them for no seatbelt!!
Carl

Speaking of seatbelt laws.....am I required to wear a seatbelt when out on gravel roads (DNR or Weyerhauser land)?  It makes it a lot slower to have to unbuckle my seat-belt before I jump out of the truck to shoot a deer.  I don't want to get a ticket from a Warden for not having a seat-belt on, but sometimes when out scouting in Capital Forest or wherever I may take the seat-belt off for a while on the back roads.

DNR definitely yes because it is considered a public road just like the highway. Same goes for USFS, DFW & BLM roads.

Most timber companies have regulations saying that you must follow all traffic laws on their property and some even have speed limits. I would be shocked if Weyerhaeuser didn’t have this regulation.

[Sumpnneedskillin]

A female Game agent in Fruitland area was puling people over and citing them for no seatbelt!!
Carl

Speaking of seatbelt laws.....am I required to wear a seatbelt when out on gravel roads (DNR or Weyerhauser land)?  It makes it a lot slower to have to unbuckle my seat-belt before I jump out of the truck to shoot a deer.  I don't want to get a ticket from a Warden for not having a seat-belt on, but sometimes when out scouting in Capital Forest or wherever I may take the seat-belt off for a while on the back roads.

RCW 46.61.688
Safety belts, use required — Penalties — Exemptions.

 (3) Every person sixteen years of age or older operating or riding in a motor vehicle shall wear the safety belt assembly in a properly adjusted and securely fastened manner.

 ( The state patrol may adopt rules exempting operators or occupants of farm vehicles, construction equipment, and vehicles that are required to make frequent stops from the requirement of wearing safety belts.

[Glockster]

WDFW and WSP are the only police in WA with statewide general jurisdiction police powers.  Seattle Police could write you for any infraction in the city limits but that same officer cannot write you for anything outside of the city of Seattle.  

SPD could run radar on I-5, but they leave that to WSP because they have many other things to do.

During Seafair (Sea-Fear) weekend there are atleast 4 WDFW vessels out on LK WA working BUI/public safety, which means those 4 vessels and 12 officers (plus a sergeant and I even saw a Capt.) are not working fish/wildlife.  

My question is why is WDFW doing ANY non-Fish/Wildlife enforcement if their resources are so stretched?  Afterall, we never see other agencies come to help them work the Elk opener or Lk WA Sockeye.

[bigtex]

During Seafair (Sea-Fear) weekend there are atleast 4 WDFW vessels out on LK WA working BUI/public safety, which means those 4 vessels and 12 officers (plus a sergeant and I even saw a Capt.) are not working fish/wildlife.  

My question is why is WDFW doing ANY non-Fish/Wildlife enforcement if their resources are so stretched?  Afterall, we never see other agencies come to help them work the Elk opener or Lk WA Sockeye.

During SeaFair WDFW puts out 4 vessels (2 are actually federal vessels that WDFW regularly uses) that are captained by a WDFW Officer. On each vessel are the WDFW Officer, a WSP Trooper, and a US Coast Guard officer. The WDFW Officer drives the vessel, WSP does the breathalyzer and USCG handles a lot of the boating issues. So not all of the officers on WDFW boats are actually WDFW Officers.

The reason why WDFW works SeaFair is because they are required to do so in order to receive the $200k grant for boating enforcement that they get from State Parks. State Parks is the lead boating enforcement agency in the state and gives grants for law enforcement agencies to do boating enforcement, WDFW gets the most money.

During SeaFair WDFW, Seattle PD, Kent PD, Mercer Island PD, King County SO and the USCG all provide vessels for patrol.

So once again the reason why they work SeaFair is because they would not get a $200k grant if they didn’t work it.

[Glockster]

Thanks for the info Big Tex.  It's all about the Benjamins for sure! 

I'm a USCG licensed capt and operate vessel for hire on Lk WA so I'm well familiar with the (wide) variety of police agencies on the lake.  '08 Seafear I did see a WDFW vessel with Capt. Hebner, Sgt Chandler and one WDFW officer on the same boat.  They were all aboard the WDFW #25 the uc Grady White. 

I still think that's a bit brass heavy for one boat. 

Also doesn't WS Parks have their own commissioned now?