Adam Taylor
12-14-2006, 12:38 PM
Found this posted on another board. Thought the members here would be interested in reading it.
EnCon police do their duty
By BOB SAMPSON
For the Norwich Bulletin
During the regular gun season for deer, many of the shady characters that every sportsman would like to see removed from the woods go into hiding. The reason is there are so many land owners and legal hunters who would have them busted in a wink for poaching the woodlands.
However, as the gun season ground to a close with only a hand full of muzzleloader enthusiasts along with a sprinkling of late season bow hunters to contend with, the bums start creeping out from under their rocks once again. As a result, EnCon Police (Environmental Conservation Police) have been busy since late November with an assortment of arrests.
It took me about 10 years to routinely refer to these dedicated, hard-working wards of our fisheries and wildlife resources as Department for Environmental Protection Conservation Officers rather than Game Wardens. I will try to do better with this new term in the future. Whether referred to as wardens, COs or EnCon Police, they are the people who go out into the field to apprehend violators of our conservation laws with powers of arrest in other areas as well.
Tall order
People don't realize just how highly qualified full fledged COs are once they are completely trained and tackling the broad array of duties they are called upon to perform every year.
Bob Zabolinski, a veteran CO, told me that after passing a state test and being accepted into the program, they spend 16 weeks training at the Connecticut State Police Academy. This rigorous and intense training is followed by 10 more weeks of police standards training.
Then these future wardens spend a couple more years learning wildlife, fisheries and environmental rules, regulations, and related material in an on-the-job intern program before taking another test that qualifies them to become an Agency Police Officer (APO), which is a step below full fledged EnCon Police status.
APOs work in state parks and localized patrol situations, where full-fledged EnCon police have statewide duties and authority. It takes about five years total, more than the equivalent in education to many graduate programs, to becoming a full-fledged conservation officer. Their duties don't only include fisheries and wildlife issues, but boating, ATV violations, trespassing, as well as drug, alcohol, family violence and even prostitution in some of the state park facilities and camp grounds.
They don't only have to know civil law, but fisheries, wildlife and a whole array of environmental and conservation regulations as well. It's a tough job that during the hunting season requires approaching often very unhappy people who are almost always carrying loaded guns while hunting. Even state troopers don't face anywhere near this number of gun-toting individuals. However, most law-breaking hunters and even poachers are not out to harm anyone.
Environmental police work is a dangerous job, one that for the first time in Connecticut history cost an on-duty conservation officer his life on Nov. 20, 1998.
That evening, 21-year DEP veteran biologist/CO James Spignesi Jr. was accidentally killed by a poacher's bullet while investigating an illegal deer-hunting complaint.
The poacher that killed him shot at a shadow in dark conditions, thinking Spignesi and his partner were a deer. Humans don't look at all like deer. We are way too tall and our legs much too fat. The killer broke the cardinal safety rule of the hunter's safety code of ethics, which is "always positively identify your target and what's behind it before shooting." It's a common-sense rule occasionally broken with deadly consequences.
Recent incidents
On Dec. 4, EnCon police responded to a complaint in Windham of someone hunting illegally on private land near Pigeon Swamp Road. The trespasser was not wearing orange, but was in full camouflage with a mask and swung his gun towards one of the officers as they approached. He was tackled and, after a brief scuffle, handcuffed. The offender, Shannon Colburn of Putnam, was charged with interfering with an officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, hunting under the influence of alcohol, third-degree criminal trespass and illegal deer hunting. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
The following day, across the state in Harwinton, five more deer poachers, two of whom had traveled south from Vermont to steal our deer, were arrested under an array of charges ranging from illegal deer hunting, loaded weapons in a motor vehicle, negligent hunting, failure to wear orange and interfering with arrest.
Quad and motor cycle riders have become a progressively greater problem, one that the law has been clamping down on more frequently this year. On Nov. 24, EnCon police responded to complaints of a quad rider trespassing on private property in Torrington. This law breaker, 26-year-old Jason Wesolowski, has the dubious distinction of being the first person arrested under a new law (as of Oct. 1) that makes it illegal to drive ATVs while under the influence of alcohol. At least this guy was packing his empty beer cans out in his backpack (solid evidence), because the slobs that tear up the woods where I hunt throw them along their riding trails. Zabolinski said one of his fellow officers was literally run over by a drunk last year while making an arrest of a quad rider who took off from a local pub outside Willimantic.
The point is EnCon police and COs have a difficult and dangerous job. To make things worse, there's not enough of them around. They were stretched thin when I worked for the DEP as a biologist 20 years ago and they've lost a bunch of veterans since.
Remember, with a five-year turnaround time for complete training and 21 out of 52 existing officers eligible for retirement over the next few years, the department could be in serious trouble. Like police anywhere, they can't just pull a person off the street, put them in uniform and put them on the job. Intense long term training is required first.
If you see illegal activity, lights in fields at night followed by gunfire, people fishing before opening day, hunting on Sunday (though target shooting is legal), fishing before opening day, etc., call Project TIP (Turn In Poachers) at 1-800-842-HELP.
Don't try to do anything yourself other than take notes, descriptions, patterns of sightings, license plates and other pertinent information for the professionals.
Cash rewards ranging from $50 to $200 (for deer poaching busts) are awarded for convictions resulting from these totally anonymous calls. No one's name is ever mentioned, callers are assigned a number that they can simply check on from time to time to see if they hit the jackpot.
Most people who report outdoor-related crimes never claim their rewards. Instead, they ask to have it remain in the program.
Bob Sampson Jr. writes an outdoors column that appears each Thursday. Reach him at sports@norwichbulletin.com
EnCon police do their duty
By BOB SAMPSON
For the Norwich Bulletin
During the regular gun season for deer, many of the shady characters that every sportsman would like to see removed from the woods go into hiding. The reason is there are so many land owners and legal hunters who would have them busted in a wink for poaching the woodlands.
However, as the gun season ground to a close with only a hand full of muzzleloader enthusiasts along with a sprinkling of late season bow hunters to contend with, the bums start creeping out from under their rocks once again. As a result, EnCon Police (Environmental Conservation Police) have been busy since late November with an assortment of arrests.
It took me about 10 years to routinely refer to these dedicated, hard-working wards of our fisheries and wildlife resources as Department for Environmental Protection Conservation Officers rather than Game Wardens. I will try to do better with this new term in the future. Whether referred to as wardens, COs or EnCon Police, they are the people who go out into the field to apprehend violators of our conservation laws with powers of arrest in other areas as well.
Tall order
People don't realize just how highly qualified full fledged COs are once they are completely trained and tackling the broad array of duties they are called upon to perform every year.
Bob Zabolinski, a veteran CO, told me that after passing a state test and being accepted into the program, they spend 16 weeks training at the Connecticut State Police Academy. This rigorous and intense training is followed by 10 more weeks of police standards training.
Then these future wardens spend a couple more years learning wildlife, fisheries and environmental rules, regulations, and related material in an on-the-job intern program before taking another test that qualifies them to become an Agency Police Officer (APO), which is a step below full fledged EnCon Police status.
APOs work in state parks and localized patrol situations, where full-fledged EnCon police have statewide duties and authority. It takes about five years total, more than the equivalent in education to many graduate programs, to becoming a full-fledged conservation officer. Their duties don't only include fisheries and wildlife issues, but boating, ATV violations, trespassing, as well as drug, alcohol, family violence and even prostitution in some of the state park facilities and camp grounds.
They don't only have to know civil law, but fisheries, wildlife and a whole array of environmental and conservation regulations as well. It's a tough job that during the hunting season requires approaching often very unhappy people who are almost always carrying loaded guns while hunting. Even state troopers don't face anywhere near this number of gun-toting individuals. However, most law-breaking hunters and even poachers are not out to harm anyone.
Environmental police work is a dangerous job, one that for the first time in Connecticut history cost an on-duty conservation officer his life on Nov. 20, 1998.
That evening, 21-year DEP veteran biologist/CO James Spignesi Jr. was accidentally killed by a poacher's bullet while investigating an illegal deer-hunting complaint.
The poacher that killed him shot at a shadow in dark conditions, thinking Spignesi and his partner were a deer. Humans don't look at all like deer. We are way too tall and our legs much too fat. The killer broke the cardinal safety rule of the hunter's safety code of ethics, which is "always positively identify your target and what's behind it before shooting." It's a common-sense rule occasionally broken with deadly consequences.
Recent incidents
On Dec. 4, EnCon police responded to a complaint in Windham of someone hunting illegally on private land near Pigeon Swamp Road. The trespasser was not wearing orange, but was in full camouflage with a mask and swung his gun towards one of the officers as they approached. He was tackled and, after a brief scuffle, handcuffed. The offender, Shannon Colburn of Putnam, was charged with interfering with an officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, hunting under the influence of alcohol, third-degree criminal trespass and illegal deer hunting. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
The following day, across the state in Harwinton, five more deer poachers, two of whom had traveled south from Vermont to steal our deer, were arrested under an array of charges ranging from illegal deer hunting, loaded weapons in a motor vehicle, negligent hunting, failure to wear orange and interfering with arrest.
Quad and motor cycle riders have become a progressively greater problem, one that the law has been clamping down on more frequently this year. On Nov. 24, EnCon police responded to complaints of a quad rider trespassing on private property in Torrington. This law breaker, 26-year-old Jason Wesolowski, has the dubious distinction of being the first person arrested under a new law (as of Oct. 1) that makes it illegal to drive ATVs while under the influence of alcohol. At least this guy was packing his empty beer cans out in his backpack (solid evidence), because the slobs that tear up the woods where I hunt throw them along their riding trails. Zabolinski said one of his fellow officers was literally run over by a drunk last year while making an arrest of a quad rider who took off from a local pub outside Willimantic.
The point is EnCon police and COs have a difficult and dangerous job. To make things worse, there's not enough of them around. They were stretched thin when I worked for the DEP as a biologist 20 years ago and they've lost a bunch of veterans since.
Remember, with a five-year turnaround time for complete training and 21 out of 52 existing officers eligible for retirement over the next few years, the department could be in serious trouble. Like police anywhere, they can't just pull a person off the street, put them in uniform and put them on the job. Intense long term training is required first.
If you see illegal activity, lights in fields at night followed by gunfire, people fishing before opening day, hunting on Sunday (though target shooting is legal), fishing before opening day, etc., call Project TIP (Turn In Poachers) at 1-800-842-HELP.
Don't try to do anything yourself other than take notes, descriptions, patterns of sightings, license plates and other pertinent information for the professionals.
Cash rewards ranging from $50 to $200 (for deer poaching busts) are awarded for convictions resulting from these totally anonymous calls. No one's name is ever mentioned, callers are assigned a number that they can simply check on from time to time to see if they hit the jackpot.
Most people who report outdoor-related crimes never claim their rewards. Instead, they ask to have it remain in the program.
Bob Sampson Jr. writes an outdoors column that appears each Thursday. Reach him at sports@norwichbulletin.com