Commission struggling to maintain its deputies

Posted on: January 17, 2019 | Bob Frye | Comments

The Fish and Boat Commission's deputy force is shrinking.

Full-time and deputy waterways conservation officers work on fish stockings as well as law enforcement.
Photo: PA Fish and Boat Commission

This is going to be a tougher nut to crack.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has operated shorthanded for quite a while now. When fully staffed, it should have 98 waterways conservation officers, its name for full-time law enforcement staff.

In 2017 it had 82 officers. Last year it had 78.

Eventually, though, and perhaps even sooner rather than later, the commission will rectify that.

It hasn’t hired and trained a new class of officers for one reason only: lack of funds. But it’s hopeful state lawmakers will increase fishing license fees this year – for the first time since 2005 – and thereby address that.

But money won’t solve this problem.

The commission’s full-time officers are traditionally – for more than 100 years, in fact – assisted by deputies, or volunteer officers. The commission had about 400 deputies on the force in the 1980s, and even 100 or so as recently as 2013.

That dropped to 70 in 2017, though, and 65 last year.

That’s the smallest the deputy force has been in the six years he’s been director of the bureau of law enforcement, said Corey Britcher.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do about that,” he said. “Recruitment has been difficult. People just aren’t stepping up to do it.”

Those remaining are generally older, too. Several of those who left the force last year did so to retirement, Britcher said.

That’s not unique to the commission. Volunteers – and younger ones in particular — are scarce all over these days.

A University of Maryland study published last year, titled “Good Intentions, Gap in Action,” found that volunteering declined over the past 15 years, most dramatically among adults 25 and older.

“If the volunteering rate had not dropped at all between 2006 and 2015, we would have almost 4.6 million more 25-and-over volunteers across the country,” the study said.

The commission admittedly asks a lot of its deputy force, Britcher said.

They have to buy their own firearm and some of their other equipment, he said. In addition, they have to complete Act 235 training – which gives them the authority to carry a sidearm – and pass a psychological exam, go to five long weekends of training and then perform 100 to 150 hours of on the job training.

They get paid mileage and receive a stipend of up to $80 a day, “but not every hour you work will be reimbursed like that,” Britcher said.

“What I always tell people is, it’s an expensive hobby,” he added.

Deputies provide valuable service to the commission, though, Britcher said. Several commissioners agree, and asked him at a recent meeting if there are ways to boost the deputy force.

Commissioner Norm Gavlick of Luzerne County wondered if there is a way to reward full-time officers for recruiting help. Perhaps something like a “referral bonus” is an option, he said.

“I think it’s something we ought to look at,” Gavlick said. “Because if officers have a little bit more of an incentive to find someone, it might help to bring some people on board.”

Britcher said he tells officers that the job of finding deputies starts with them. He can’t find a volunteer to serve in the northeast from his office in Harrisburg, he said.

“It has to be locally. That’s where it happens,” Britcher said.

But, staff added, the commission might be prohibited by contract from awarding cash bonuses to officers recruiting deputies. Other, internal, rewards might be a possibility, though.

Commissioner Rocco Ali of Armstrong County said perhaps board members could help find volunteers, if they were first provided with a handout or something they could pass along outlining the responsibilities and benefits of volunteering.

He’s been asked about the deputy role in the past, he said. But he couldn’t offer much in the way of answers.

“I really couldn’t tell them anything other than, yeah, I know you go to training,” Ali said.

Commissioner Richard Lewis of Adams County agreed. The commission needs to develop a pamphlet, post information about the deputy program on Facebook and its other social media channels, include an article in its bi-monthly magazine “Angler & Boater” and otherwise tell people “we need help.”

And it has to do it regularly, he said.

It’s perhaps possible to find help. The Stanford University Center on Longevity found there are three primary obstacles to volunteering: lack of time, lack of information, and lack of an invitation.

“By reducing these barriers, we can create a new social norm of volunteering throughout one’s life; where it is expected that everyone volunteers starting from school age and throughout old age,” it said.

Britcher said the commission wants to solve its deputy issue. It has two candidates awaiting training now, but needs 10 to run a class.

He’s hoping the commission will find eight more, and soon.

“Our (deputy) program is over 100 years old. I don’t want to see it go away,” Britcher said.

More information on deputies

Interested in becoming a deputy waterways conservation officer?

The commission has information about the program on its website. Find it here.

An old, but still at least partially relevant, article about the deputy program written by a full-time waterways conservation officer can also be found by clicking here.

 

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Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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