A recent surprise decision by state fish and game officials to end a century-old program employing deputy wildlife conservation officers has drawn swift criticism from Pennsylvania’s outdoor community along with the scrutiny of at least one Northeast Pennsylvania lawmaker.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission simultaneously informed their deputy wardens last week that their part-time positions, which for 123 years have served to assist the state’s full-time wardens, will soon be eliminated.
An email sent to the deputy game wardens informed them the program will be ending effective Sept. 1 due to the “natural evolution of modern professional conservation law enforcement.” Deputies were directed to turn in their hear by Oct. 1.
The move drew swift criticism in the outdoors community, whose members were concerned about the impact such a manpower loss will have on fish and game enforcement.
State Rep. Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp., was among those to question the sudden shift in policy. As an avid outdoorsman and a member of the state House of Representatives Game & Fisheries Committee, he questioned the rationale behind the move.
“Really, each agency had it their budget to pay these officers. It’s just very questionable why it was done so fast and without a lot of information being shared,” Haddock said in an interview this week. “I have a lot more questions at this point than answers.”
Haddock said the move will affect 140 deputy wildlife conservation officers working for the Game Commission as well as another 36 deputies working for the Fish and Boat Commission.
Those include five deputy game wardens in Luzerne County and two in Schuylkill County, Game Commission spokesman John Buffone said. There are no deputy game wardens in Lackawanna County, he said.
“As part of our ongoing mission to protect Pennsylvania’s wildlife resources, the PGC has made the difficult decision to end our deputy game warden program within law enforcement,” Buffone said in a statement. “This decision reflects our focus on having the most efficient and effective full-time workforce possible. This decision was not made lightly, and the commission is deeply grateful to the committed individuals that served as deputy wardens, providing valuable services to the agency and to the people of Pennsylvania.”
The statement went on to say the Game Commission is “unwavering in its obligation to serve as the guardian of state wildlife resources for all citizens” and has “invested significantly” in expanding its fulltime game warden staff.
The commission recently conducted six consecutive cadet classes and now has more fulltime wardens than at any other time in the agency’s history, he said.
Still, Haddock questioned the impact of the decision on wildlife management and officer safety in the field. He noted that a lack of deputies could mean fulltime wardens might now have to rely on support from staff members in other counties.
“I’m a big law enforcement guy. Anytime you cut law enforcement officers in the field, that lets violators get away with bad deeds, and there is also less support for full-time officers that are out there,” Haddock said. “Besides the safety of the officers that are remaining, we have property that has to be patrolled and animals that have to be protected. Cutting law enforcement exposes those animals to violators.”
He said he intends to look further into the matter, noting that several rumors have been circulating regarding the motivations behind the abrupt shift in policy.
One of them relates to a July 21 decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that reversed a longstanding “open fields” precedent that allowed for warrantless searches of hunters on private property. Under the ruling, game wardens must first get a search warrant before entering such property.
The same day, the Game Commission issued a statement saying it was “disappointed” by the decision and that its wardens will “will execute their mission of protecting Pennsylvania wildlife and enforcing hunting laws within these new constitutional standards.”
Another theory about the change relates to a “shared-services report” that examined the possibility of merging some responsibilities of the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission, Haddock said, adding that he is keenly interested in reading that document.
“In the last report we received, everything was fine with the part-timers. So this is miffing how, in the middle of the year, they didn’t deserve their jobs. They weren’t worth $12.50 an hour?” Haddock said. “The executive directors were well within their rights to do this, but I am well within my rights as a member of the House of Representatives to question it.”