The Nature and Extent of Conservation Policing: Law Enforcement Generalists or Conservation Specialists?

Abstract

Little is known about law enforcement agencies with responsibility for fish, wildlife, and natural resource protection. Traditional conceptions of fish and wildlife police associate these officers almost entirely with fishing and hunting activities. The relative scarcity of academic literature regarding fish and wildlife police agencies results in a lack of understanding about their role in the criminal justice system in general. The current study seeks to contribute to the limited existing literature by examining conservation policing in Florida, a state not yet studied in this context, by analyzing some 2,910 field events. Findings indicate that officers devote a considerable portion of their attention to traditional law enforcement activities in addition to the type of enforcement customarily associated with fish and wildlife law enforcement.

Policing the Poachers in a Western State: Game Wardens and the Use of Discretion

“…Do wardens with more occupational experience become cynical and have more negative attitudes toward offenders than newer officers? This is becoming more important in the context of change in conservation law enforcement as these officers become more like traditional law enforcement officers in terms of the responsibilities they are given (Falcone, 2004;Patten et al, 2015;Rossler & Suttmoeller, 2018;Shelley & Crow, 2009;Sherblom et al, 2002). It is hoped that this research will generate additional interest in the study of conservation law enforcement by law enforcement scholars.…”

Conservation Officers’ Perceptions of Their Working Conditions and Their Enforcement of Environmental Law in a Territory of High Environmental Protection

“…An increase in visitors to the national parks in recent decades [16] has involved higher rates of urban-associated street crimes in these areas. In this sense, COs' work may include alerting the relevant authorities and taking charge of the situation until these authorities arrive on the scene [17,18]. The second type of difficulty for COs is that they need to interact with different types of people who may be engaging in a variety of recreational activities (i.e., hiking, camping, extreme sports, etc.)…”

“…Studies on COs' occupational stress identify as relevant factors the perception of having to take on an increasing number of duties associated with traditional law enforcement [18] and the requirement to work long hours, which limits personal time with family [20], as well as the lack of communication and/or agreement with public authorities and institutions [21]. Specifically, many COs think that judges and prosecutors ignore environmental crimes because they are more concerned with crimes involving human victims, and therefore they only impose small fines or just dismiss these cases when they eventually come to court [24].…”

Occupy Ottawa, Conservation Officers, and Policing Networks in Canada’s Capital City

“…Pendleton (2000) discusses game-warden law enforcement in the United States, but only in the case of national park murders. Insufficient emphasis has been placed on the diverse regulatory activities of conservation officers (Shelly and Crow 2009) and other policing agents in rural and parkland regions. Hermer (2002) has studied the role of game wardens in regulating a broad range of conduct in provincial parks in Canada and state parks in the USA.…”