Pennsylvania is dissolving the volunteer deputy forces that have backed up its game wardens and waterways officers for more than a century, and the man who runs the Fish and Boat Commission's board is losing his own badge in the process.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Game Commission confirmed on 13 August that both deputy law enforcement programs end on 1 September. The PGC is cutting 140 deputy game wardens; the PFBC is cutting 36 deputy waterways conservation officers. Active PFBC deputies were told on 12 August.
For anglers, the PFBC number is the one that matters. Those 36 deputies served in 29 of the agency's 76 patrol districts, alongside roughly 100 full-time waterways conservation officers. Twelve were in the southeast region, seven in the northeast, six in the northwest, four each in the southwest and northcentral, three in the southcentral. They worked as needed for $100 an eight-hour day, with uniforms and gear provided, and their duties ran well past enforcement — trout stocking included.
Don Anderson has been one of them since 1978. He is also president of the PFBC's board of commissioners, and at 72 he is the oldest serving deputy in the state. Counting the two years he spent as a Game Commission deputy from 1976, his service is closing on half a century.
He does not dispute the arithmetic behind the decision.
"Our deputy forces decreased greatly over the last couple of years," Anderson told the Pocono Record. "We're down to a low number. Like in our southwest region of the state, there's only four of us, counting myself. We've all been getting older and we haven't had the interest with any younger people coming on as deputy officers."
Recruitment has been hard at both ends, he said, part-time and full-time alike. "They have to give up weekends and holidays to work. Of course, that's when we need people on the enforcement end."
He is also weighing his own exit on its merits. "Sometimes you just have to sort of stop and look at things and say, should I be doing this at age 72? And maybe it's time that I should give it up for my safety and maybe the safety of other officers I'm working with," he said. "I have mixed emotions over it, to be quite honest."
Anderson pointed to a second factor: a 31 July Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in favour of two hunting clubs that challenged the Game Commission's right to enter posted private property without a warrant. The court denied the agency's open fields doctrine claim, meaning wardens will now need a warrant in most cases to investigate suspected violations on posted private land.
"That left a lot of things up in the air that need to be determined in the future as to what conservation officers can legally do and not do," Anderson said. Deputies are trained, he added, but "it's not at the level of a full-time officer. Does that create some liability for the agency, that's a question there, too."
Anderson said PFBC executive director Tim Schaeffer and PGC executive director Steve Smith made the call for both agencies, and that the PFBC board was briefed several weeks ago under personnel matters.
"As part of our ongoing mission to protect Pennsylvania's wildlife resources, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has made the difficult decision to end the Deputy Game Warden Program within law enforcement," PGC press secretary John Buffone said. "This decision reflects our focus on having the most efficient and effective full-time, professional workforce."
Deputies on the ground have not taken the framing well.
"It's sad, angry, frustrating, spending 10 years for the agency doing this job," said deputy game warden Kale Geiswite. "And to just be treated that way at the end is unfathomable."
Gary Fisher, an 18-year deputy, put the cost in personal terms. "It kind of hurts," he told WGAL. "We devoted all this time, and we've spent our own money to buy the stuff that the agency would not provide us at the time."
The practical worry is coverage. "I think the impact is going to be huge. I think you're going to see the wardens having longer response times now," said deputy Jake Clevenger. "So, when somebody does call the game commission for a nuisance animal or some type of a violation, they're going to have to prioritize. And it's not going to be a quick response."
Geiswite's complaint is narrower than the policy itself. "I think as deputies, I think we just deserve answers. And if the program is not going to come back, that's fine. But I think that those people who are currently serving were treated poorly. And we deserve better than that."
