IS THIS WHY SO MANY APPLICANTS WANT TO BECOME WILDLIFE OFFICERS?

I suspect hunting on duty goes on a lot among fish and game wardens throughout the U.S. In this Ohio case, I would say the blame for this problem goes much higher than the wildlife officers being investigated. What kind of a Mickey Mouse operation were the Ohio officials running? No radio communication at all with their officers while they were allegedly on duty - that’s simply amazing!

OFFICERS ACCUSED OF HUNTING ON DUTY
State Inspector General’s report claims wildlife officers routinely hunted while working, sought overtime pay

By Josh Sweigart

Dayton Daily News
July 20, 2012

BROWN COUNTY, Ohio — The Ohio Inspector General released a report Thursday claiming state wildlife officers in Brown County routinely hunted while on the clock, often seeking overtime after a day of bagging deer, turkey or squirrels.

The agency's findings led to theft in office indictments Thursday in a Brown County court of an Ohio Department of Natural Resources supervisor, David Warner, and an ODNR employee, Matthew Roberts. Another employee, Allan Wright, was named in the investigation but had already been charged in federal court on unrelated charges.

The inspector general's office also recommended that ODNR increase monitoring of its on-duty wildlife officers. These officers were able to clock in and out remotely and never check in throughout the day.

"Instead of being engaged all day protecting hunters and others and making sure the regulations of wildlife are being observed, they're checked out," said Ohio Deputy Inspector Gen. Carl Enslen. "They're being paid and they're hunting rather than paying attention to those duties they're sworn to uphold."

The investigation raised questions about wildlife officer safety lacking oversight. "If a wildlife officer were unconscious, incapacitated and unable to operate a radio, the department's failure to mark any wildlife officer's position for long periods of time could pose serious consequences," the report says.

ODNR Spokeswoman Beth-any McCorkle said this will be part of "an internal administrative investigation going on now."

The inspector general found the officers in 2008, 2009 and 2010 would some days radio in to start their shift, then call out at the end of the day with no other radio contact in between. Those same days, they would hunt deer, tagging and recording their kills as they are required to by state law. They would later claim overtime on their timesheets for some of the hunts.

They would sometimes leave their Division of Wildlife vehicles parked, often near Wright's house, according to the vehicles' onboard GPS.

Wright - who cooperated with investigators under the terms of his prior plea - told investigators they would leave their gun belts and uniform shirts in the garage during the day. He said they hunted turkey and squirrel as well.

He said he wasn't worried about getting caught because Warner was his supervisor.

"There was no oversight," Wright told investigators, according to their report.

"In this case, what was curious was the lack of radio contact throughout the day," Enslen said. "In this investigation we did not go into how systemic this is throughout the institution."

The wildlife officers were caught after someone forwarded to the inspector general's office in February 2012 a photograph. The photo was of Warner, Wright and five other men posing with seven fresh kills in front of Wright's garage.

The photo had been posted on a Web site promoting the deer mineral lick Trophy Rock. In it, Warner and Wright were wearing their uniform pants.

A statement from ODNR said Roberts is on restricted duty and Warner is on unpaid administrative leave during the investigation.

Wright was fired from ODNR in August 2011 after pleading guilty to federal charges including selling a state resident hunting license to a South Carolina wildlife officer.

He was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 5 years probation, three months house arrest, a $1,000 fine and to surrender his hunting and fishing license.

Last year, Wright was paid $56,416, Warner $65,789 and Roberts $55,943, according to state records.