Hassled by a DEM CO

[Rob Rockcrawler]

I finished a conservation law enforcement training academy in April. I can understand why the DEM guy might have been acting the way he was. Out of my class of 35 there were only 3 fisherman in the group, and they are more the worm and bobber types, and only 2 hunted, and one only "hunted" shoopting preserves with his dad, he was a harvard grad afterall. I made damn sure he understood that he has never hunted before. In all the role playing scenarios we did it was blatantly obvious that they dont understand sportsmen. One instance was an "officer" approaching a duck hunter with his plastic gun trained on the perp, oh i mean legal duck hunter. Some of the people that took the MA EPO civil service exam were blatantly anto hunting. Wanting to end all hunting because they are memebrs of PETA or atleast very sympathetic to their cause . Its going to take these rookies a while to understand the sportsmen as not being evil bastards but people who make their jobs have meaning. Just like any law enforcemnt job, if you look at everyone as being a criminal and treat people like crap you will be workin towards an early career change. I wanted to work in RI with the DEM but dont have the right kind of educational background. Which is prolly good for you guys that want to keep your spots, cuz that is one of the best perks of the job, finding the good spots, unfortunatly i dont think they get a chance to fish and hunt enough. Just imagine night vision goggles, korkers, and an aquaskins top all paid for by the state because they are essential tools of the job. i got breifly checked by an EPO at the canal. He looked at me and my equipment and figured i wasnt you average short taker, we had a breif chat and he watched BassBAbe fight a fish and left before it even got landed. A nice guy who fished and understands fisherman, the kind of guy you want on the job.

[piemma]

Rob:
Great post. As a lot of the guys on the board know I have surf fished for a long time and I had never encountered a CO while out in the surf. I certainly didn't intend any disrespect to the officer but I didn't KNOW he was a CO. He was on shore shining a million candle power spotlight on me so I couldn't see him, just his light in my face and him yelling. I still have not figured out what he wanted. he never said. When he came out to where I was he asked me what I was doing which is really quite bizarre considering I had on neoprene waders, Korkers and a 10' rod slinging live eels.
Oh well, I think we have beat this to death. I just hope that I go another 40 years without running into another CO in the dead on night 50 yards out on a reef.

[SBASS1]

I had the same experience years ago at Groton Long point. I spent a fall/winter house sitting. I was walking up a public right of way on the way back to my house, in the pouring rain. I had oilers on, korkers, plug bag, and a 10' surf rod, when I got a spot light put on me and the flashing lights turned on. Very similiar dialog... What are you doing? My wrong answers was "Stealing VCR's.. what do you think I'm doing!" Things went south from there!!! His biggest concern was finding out were I had parked my car. GLP has their own police department for all 300 think their rich summer resident's. Most of the time they sit right at the entrance turning non GLPer's away. Can you say nothing to do, I got a speeding ticket for doing 27mph in a 25 zone. By the way this was before the rainy night.

[piemma]

Almost sounds like these two CO's knew each other......

[spence]

Actually it sounds like you and Sbass1 could be related. You boys ever think to ask...hello officer, how may I help you this evening



-spence

[protty31]

Not when it starts out by him asking what are you doing?Plain ignorance

[labrax]

Sounds like the Conservation Law Enforcement Academy class is used as a stepping stone by people looking to land other law enforcement jobs (City, Town or State) - the Environmental police are probably the only ones hiring. Too bad that more people in your class were not really immersed in hunting and/or fishing. Having an understanding of hunting or fishing and a desire to be involved in such activities would seem like it should be a prerequisite to be a good CO.

I briefly worked for a fish and game agency in the West and met some wonderful CO's while there. The ones that I met were all anglers and hunters and this seemed like their dream job. On the whole, I think the majority of them are decent guys that have to deal with all sorts of cr@p, but the officer in the story seems like he was a little thick-headed.

Pete