Law enforcement bill makes it one more step
Poachers must be drooling with what is going on in the Virginia General Assembly.
A Senate bill proposed by Richard Stuart that would prevent Conservation Police (game wardens) from doing a valuable part of their job has made it out of committee and into the full Senate.
SB26 if made into law would prevent officers from stopping a person for the purpose of determining compliance with laws, rules or regulations without reasonable suspicion. It repeals a section of state code that allows for inspection of game and fish for the purposes of enforcing bag and creel limits without first having made an arrest.
That means that a Conservation Police officer can't pull up to your boat and ask to see your fishing license and see what you've caught. That means an officer can't approach a duck hunter and ask to see their license and federal duck stamp, and can't ask to see how many they've shot.
Unless of course, they've already caught this person doing something illegal and arrested them.
I don't know many outdoorsmen or women who have ever had much of a problem with dealing with a wildlife officer - unless, of course, they were up to no good in the first place.
Proponents of the bill say this is a privacy issue. They argue that officers can still set up check stations on the water or in the woods similar to those done on the state's highways. What's the difference, I ask, in setting up a road block or simply approaching an outdoorsman in their environment?
Ya got me.
Opponents argue that these practices should be part of the day-to-day effort - as they have been for decades - to look out for the state's wildlife.
Poaching is going to happen regardless. There are people out there who just don't give a hoot about wildlife and rules governing them. But without the threat of potentially being asked to see a license or look in a live well, you can bet potential poachers walking the fence will jump over the the wrong side.



