RI Environmental Police

[ivanputski]

They payed some kid in a uniform good money to walk around the east wall at camp cronin all summer long... I was excited to see that a dem person would be on site to hopefully fine the relentless scup/fluke/schollie poachers & litterbug extraordinaires that frequent the place like they lived there... upon speaking to the guy, he told me he has no authority to ticket... he's just there to "keep an eye on the area" (window dressing) after more discussion, this guy didnt even know the difference between a scup and a fluke... i pointed out a guy 15 feet away. "hey, look at that guy keeping a 14" fluke!!!" his response: "oh, so thats a fluke?" he didnt know a striper and a striped bass were the same thing.... what a waste of money... give me that job...I'd ticket for littering, ticket for poaching, and word would quickly get out that the east wall is not the spot to leave trash and take small fish... seriously... who's hiring these guys?

[sokinwet]

A while back a friend and I had a problem with an EPO. We were pheasant hunting and my dog was on point, beeper sounding and I went into the scrub to kick out the bird. My friend was standing on the edge of the cover when an EPO came up. My buddy asked him to "hold on a minute"we were on a bird. The guy got pissed and started giving my buddy grief! Told him to put his gun on the ground ($$ OU), accused him of jacking deer (an old duffer in head to toe Filson's, 2 birddogs, bells, beepers, whistles, etc.) and proceeded to do a check 1 step this side of a strip search. I was talking about this with a retired EPO. He said that guy & most of the EPO's these days come from the law enforcement side and many have no "outdoor background"; guys who wanted to become state police officers but took the EPO position because that's what was available.
PS I stayed in the scrub with the dog until he left!