PA Game Commission ends Deputy Game Warden Program letting 140 employees go<\/a><\/p>\nThey pointed out that deputies frequently assisted full-time game wardens during calls and other operations. They said that assistance often meant having two law enforcement officers at a scene, even though the deputy\u2019s name would not necessarily appear on the resulting paperwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy thing to do, to look people face to face that are trying to disparage you and downplay what you\u2019ve done – for me personally, for the last 11 years,\u201d Geiswite said. \u201cBut that\u2019s exactly what needed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geiswite also said in the past, there have been areas of Pennsylvania without a full-time warden covering them and that deputies had helped fill those gaps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think after the meeting, the public is aware that there are voids,\u201d Geiswite said. \u201cThere are places in PA there is no full time warden covering. Those voids were being filled by deputies. And I think that just leads to more questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Game Commission defends decision<\/p>\n
Richard Danley with the Game Commission\u2019s Bureau of Wildlife Protection thanked the former deputies who attended the meeting and defended the deputy program.<\/p>\n
He also said the agency\u2019s staffing data shows the risks raised by former deputies are not unique to the end of the program.<\/p>\n
Danley said 42% of Pennsylvania\u2019s district game wardens did not have a deputy warden working with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk [that they spoke about today], – that has always been there,\u201d Danley said.<\/p>\n
The agency has also changed how full-time game wardens can work together.<\/p>\n
Danley said game wardens can now partner with other full-time officers when they want an additional person with them during patrols.<\/p>\n
“We have more game wardens in the Commonwealth than we ever have,” he said. <\/p>\n
He also had a message for all of the former deputy wardens. <\/p>\n
“We appreciate the service that they’ve given us,” he said. <\/p>\n
In the past, Game Commission spokesperson John Buffone explained their decision to end the program. <\/p>\n
The decision was based on how we believe law enforcement services can most effectively be delivered going forward, and that means an emphasis on our full-time, professional State Game Wardens. Deputies were not full-time employees, and the deputy program is fundamentally different from our full-time State Game Warden complement. To compare; Game Wardens are empowered to enforce Title 18 Crimes Code violations and any other violation of PA statute which is a misdemeanor or above, deputies are not able to enforce anything except Title 34 Game and Wildlife Code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Former deputy game wardens confronted Pennsylvania Game Commission leaders Friday, pressing for more answers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-294089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}