Conservation officers breaking the law!!

We spent all day Saturday on upper pool 4. I would guess it was about noon when we were up by the dam on the lock side. There were two conservation officers in a flat bottom boat with a center console checking fisherman around us. My guess is they were MN wardens but I didn’t pay enough attention to really tell. I truly thought they were going to check me as they were really close. But they just turned south and headed down river on plane. I found that kind of odd that they would run thru all those boats on plane but I really didn’t think about it. That was untill we ran into two guys from Janesville, WI. They claimed that those wardens came by them so close and on plane that it practically ripped one of their rods out. They said most of the line was peeled from one the rods they were fishing with. All I can say is shame on you Mr. Warden! If I ever see you doing that again I will follow you and hold you until the authorities arrive and arrest you. And shame on me for not having you arrested on Saturday.

hippicrits is what they are. We were checked one time by officers everything from license to lifejacket. After we were done my dad asked them say where are you lifejackets????? They didn’t have an answer and took off wide open to the dock in a no wake lake…………. HUH go figure.

One time ice fishing two CO’s rode up to my house on one four wheeler, they pulled in and I told them I would like to make a citizens arrest for having a passenger on an atv. They just looked at me and said have a nice day and left. I think they knew they were wrong.

Do we really need to disrespect CO’s like we are doing.

Could they have needed to speed off to offer help to a stranded boater, maybe they received a call for something else?
Are CO’s perfect? NO
Is anyone perfect? NO

The job that they have and do IS a thankless one. It seems that they get NO respect for what they do. EVER.
I have spent many hours in the field and in a boat with CO’s growing up. The first thing I noticed was the lack of respect and instant attitude that they get for doing their job, which is to protect your natural resources. I think that they do a pretty good job with the money they get AND the massive areas that they are required to patrol.

Ron

I agree with Slider. There are two sides to every story. I don’t doubt them going close to other boats while on plane, but there must have been a reason for it.

I agree whole heartedly with you slider, but there are a few that are on the big power trip too.

I agree with just about everything that has been said by everyone here. Co’s do get a undeserving hard time most of the time… but as in every profession, there are going to be bad apples here and there.

People are not perfect, no matter what their job occupation is. If anyone ever feels they have been disrespected, or had their rights violated, or see a CO act in an unsafe fashion, I would report it to their athorities and I am sure it will be dealt with if it should be.

Theres lots of reasons why a CO would have to get from point A to B in a hurry.. that shouldnt justify unsafe boating habits… at the same time I am sure the wardens didnt clip a line with militious(sp?) intent.

I would have made an effort to contact the warden personaly and politely explain I didnt care for their actions. Bad habits often change when confronted about it.

THANK YOU slider

A lot of good comments here! You would be surprised how fast information such as this travels in the law enforcement community. I whole heartedly agree with David when he mentioned “politely” bringing to the CO’s attention their actions. Nobody’s perfect.

I kind of notice too, when the CO’s straddle up, the mood of the people in the vicinity goes sour. I look at it this way, if you are worried when a CO comes, what are you doing wrong ? I for one know that they are just doing their job. Almost all I have dealt with are polite and courteous. I agree with Ron, there must have been a reason, for the way they got out of there in a hurry. I wouldn’t want their job, except on them days when it is 70′ out, dry and between seasons….oops, that doesn’t happen in Minnesota

big g

What is their real purpose, next time we consider trashing the CO maybe we should think back a little. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see someone blatenly breaking the law,keeping excess fish,fishing in the no fishing areas at the dam, ect ect. You wish a Warden was around dont you. I am happy to show my boat and license to a Warden, and I laugh at those who get caught for stupid stuff that they should know full well not to get caught for.

A warden is our hunting and fishing future. lets remember that. I dont like a law breaking power house CO either but we dont know always know THE REST OF THE STORY.

FISHINFOOL

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next time we consider trashing the CO maybe we should think back a little. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see someone blatenly breaking the law,keeping excess fish,fishing in the no fishing areas at the dam, ect ect. You wish a Warden was around dont you. I am happy to show my boat and license to a Warden, and I laugh at those who get caught for stupid stuff that they should know full well not to get caught for.

A warden is our hunting and fishing future. lets remember that. I dont like a law breaking power house CO either but we dont know always know THE REST OF THE STORY.

FISHINFOOL

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I agree 100% we were checked last night at dresbach (pool 8) the guy was very friendly and we were back to him, he could have wrote us a ticket for not having a throwable handy (within reach) because I had it in the storage compartment with the vests, but he didn’t and joked that it has been a law for about 11 yr’s. He also reminded us we have to but a new license on sunday (WI) and he was a MN CO. Nice guy

Slider

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with CO’s! As a matter of fact I was checked this past weekend and he was nothing but professional and friendly! My friend had a license issue (see post on Lesson Learned) and he still allowed him to fish the rest of the day and gave him a warning. My feeling is you will get treated with respect if you treat them with respect as well!

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My feeling is you will get treated with respect if you treat them with respect as well!

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I Agree

And I was really happy on Saturday, as I was slowly going through the no wake zone by Red Wing, and a boat flies past me, past a CO boat, and they were very shortly pulled over having a discussion

I commend the COs for doing a crappy job to the best of their abilities. You have to remember, they are working on the days we all think are sacred: fishing opener, deer hunting, duck opener, all weekends, you get the point.

A C/O has one of,if not the most dangerous law enforcement jobs around.Certainly there are “bad” C/O’s…there’s one in every crowd but,I’m 52 years old and have been checked out by a C/O,only 6 or 7 times in my life.I say only because,in the time that I’ve spent outdoors,too many times,I’ve witnessed activities that made me wish there WERE a C/O around.There are not enough of them,IMO.

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THANK YOU slider

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RVRAT, Slider was talking about CO’s not uniform police.

It is human nature to remember the bad encounters. It’s too bad that CO’s, police and just people in general can’t have a mood stone planted in their forehead.

Red means I’m in a bad mood, don’t talk to me, I just want to get this over with and move on.

I agree and disagree with most of what has been said on this thread.

First of all… I have nothing but respect and admiration for the CO officers that uphold AND respect the law. I have nothing by disappointment and disdain for the CO officers that either believe they are above the law or that the law does not pertain to them.

I do not believe in making blanket statements that “CO officers all have a tough time” or “CO officers are just doing their jobs”… the problem with these blanket statements is that the assumption is that this pertains to ALL CO officers, which we all know is not the case. It is also not right to make statements pertaining to a single CO officer that breaks the law or does something that he would arrest another individual for without including a clarifier that “I know other CO are not like this”.

Also, I do not believe that “there is always a few bad apples” is appropriate in the cases law enforcement. Signing that dotted line, these people agree to put themselves on a higher eschleon and need to adhere to higher standards. yes, they are people like anyone else and make mistakes… but when their job is to enforce the law, breaking that law is not an appropriate mistake. In these circumstances, I personally think that removal from that position is always appropriate.

But, again, any CO officer I come upon has my complete respect and I will do my utmost to comply with anything they ask. If they break the law or do something that is inappropriate… I will report that and do my best to ensure that they do not have the ability to do this with anyone else…

I have had more negative encounters with “bad” rednecks on the water than bad C0’s. But then again there are allot more rednecks out than CO’s….

Last time I had an encounter with a CO it ended with an invite to train dogs together but I have mett some real azzes out there too. People are people no matter what their job is.

While I agree with most of your post, they are human. To expect ANYONE to not have a bad day or attitude, is impossible, they are not robots. Does some of what they see, make them a little vain, maybe, but I stand by my post and view, “they are doing their jobs”. Is it the funnest job ? The most rewarding ? I am sure some days yes, but most no. What they do, is an unpopular thing, and I think we as sportsman, need to support them a little better, when they are doing their jobs. I know I have been checked 3 of the last 4 weekends, and the mood when he pulled up, goes sour, even though we are doing nothing wrong or trying to hide anything…. why is that ??? I for one will not bash them in this or any other forum. To bash a specific CO, I can live with, but to throw the blanket over CO’s is wrong, which is what this thread started doing after a few posts.

big g

Big G, I agree with you. I did not intend, in my above post, to say that CO’s can’t have a bad day. As far as I am concerned, they have every right to be as much a pain in the as anyone out there. My post was specifically about the “breaking the law” portion… and this, as well, is not geared to anything specific posted above. And I very much agree about throwing a blanket statement. That is the wrong way to go.

If it weren’t for CO officers enforcing the laws, where do you think our natural resources would be right now? Personally, I think it would be on its way to being destroyed.

*sour mood*.. does that include a very strait forward attitude or tone of voice to immediately set the course of the encounter? I guess it may come across as sour to some depending on how words come out.. but its best for any enforcement individual to immediately take control of the situation and have everything fall into place exactly as neccessary and expected to get their inspection over with as quickly as possible and try to get to the next boat.. or that boat that is trying to quietly take off in the distance that is doing something wrong knowingly.

It takes a lot more time to get the job done while BS’ing with everyone like they are their best friend.

Polite, serious, direct, whatever… it works for me. I go out of my way to try to make their job easier, it usually is very appreciated, and always shortens the visits if that is desired. Other times when they run into me on the waters here locally, I hold conversation with them for a while if its not burdoning them and catch up on new news.

The job the wardens have to do on busy bodies of water understaffed is insane. They are not robots, but they have to act like them sometimes to do the best, most efficient job they can under the given situation. The beter control of any situation any individual has, the more effectively and efficiently those jobs are going to transpire over the course of the day…

Which happens to be working their butts off enforcing our fishing laws which are in place to sustain or improve our fisheries.

Someone always feels disrespected, thats why you will see post like this on occasion until the end of time. Yes, they do occasionally make mistakes, that doesnt mean they are above the law, it means they are human. The only major question at hand was the person in question making those unsafe mistakes out of neglagence, or out of neccessity.

In response to Ron’s response, it DOES not give them the right to break the law. If you did it you would get a citation. If they do it, “lets give them a break”! BS!!!! I am not classifing any CO, just saying that laws are laws no matter who you are.

The easy part is posting a complaint on an internet message board. The hard part is following it up with an official report to the proper authorities. And I say that as a person who believes the story you wrote.

-J.

I guess the way I read this story, the boat got out of the area in a hurry, hence, onplane. I guess I do not think twice about seeing a State Trooper or County cop doing 90 mph past me, cause I assume they are going to a emergency. I believe I would ASSUME the same if I saw a CO doing it. I am not saying this is the case, but I would give the benfit of the doubt, rather than complain publicly about all CO’s. Like Jon says, maybe a little diggin, and they would have found out they were going to a case of a baby found in the river….

big g

I know the boat you guys are talking about and this is pretty true on how these conseration officers were acting all weekend. Pretty careless and i am not bi**ing about it i just noticed it. I watched them pull up on a sand bar pretty fast twice thoughout the course of the weekend. I am not just talking about pulling up to shore and then gunnning it up on the shore a little. i am talking about going 5-10 mph on to a sand bar on shore. But he i screw off at work too. i just dont have 300 people watching me all the time and hopeing they don’t come talk to me just cause i don’t like dealing with them. I have had the good experiences with them and the bad.

David, I meant the fisherman’s mood in the area went sour, the CO was pleasant and did make small talk. Very cordial. Sorry, wasn’t clear.

big g

ASSUME nothing. If they break the law then they should serve the penalty just like everyone else! Now does it do any good to create several other dangerous cituations to rush somewhere(causing more accidents to solve one)???????????? CO’s or not, everybody needs to follow the rules!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free speech, if somebody wants to bring something like this up, should they be critized? NO. Everybody has their own opinion and should not have to hide it.

Jon is right.

If there is a formal complaint to be made. Don’t make it here. It won’t correct anything. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t share your poor experiences. But if you want to resolve it, then contact the proper channels and file the complaint.