I took a picture of my new boots next to my 9 month old boots a year or so back...not only did I wear the leather out, but the rubber soles too.

It is absolutely RARE that I get a tip on someone baiting. During the 2014-2015 season I didn't even have one bait complaint...but I still found it by walking. Some counties may get a lot of bait tips, but not my county.

As for the original post...I make my own schedule most every day. I know where I'm most likely to run into violations, where I need to focus my attention, and at what hours I need to be out there. But that's not to say I can do it all by myself. Night hunting and hunting without permission are two of the violations that the general public's calls and tips really help out. I can't cover every county road in Cullman every night, but with good information I can put myself in an area where I have a better chance to nab a poacher.

Thanks!

Ok, I think I know the answer to this...but do GW's do ridealongs? I know you can do it with Police Officers.

Only if you wear orange.

Depends. We offer internships for juniors and seniors in college, in a degree program that would be related to being a game warden(wildlife management, criminal justice, ect.). We also have 1 day job shadowing opportunities for high school students interested in the job. Our district offices set all of these up, so if someone is interested they need to contact the district office for thier area. I will say that interns learn much more about the job than a 1 day job shadow. But neither one really get to have a "game warden" experience, just due to the fact that we can't take non-Leo's on private property where we spend much of our time.

Y'all be safe out there Jon.

Awesome. I have a friend that is interested in some line of that work. Ill let him know.

Maybe I read wrong Jawbone but in your first post you alluded to any LEO being able to enter a property or search a bag without a warrant or consent all the officer would have to say is he was checking for game violations. Which if that's the case I believe you would be wrong. But if not I apologize.

He's not wrong. The open field doctrine allows LEOs to go anywhere upon private property. They have to have a warrant to search any buildings or dwellings on property.

All firearms, bags, coolers, vessels and vehicles used in hunting can be searched for illegal or legally taken game animals. Failure to submit for inspection is a crime.

What he said, but I didn't know there was a separate statute for failure to submit to an inspection until Troy told me so. To be clear though, the search that we are referring to is limited in its scope to looking for taken game and fish.

I'll add one more tidbit. The warrant requirement for searches of buildings and dwellings also includes the curtilage of the building, but what is in the curtilage is often in plain view so no warrant is needed in those instances.

B-ham Fred, you just like to exaggerate. You tend to piss people off on this site on a regular basis as you should probably know. I would say for the folks on this thread that are not attorneys or Leo's they appear to have a general idea of how the 4th amendment controls these situations, and better than most. I would say one or two actual lawyers have chimed into this thread and have given pretty good advice. Bottom line, GW's have more latitude for conducting searches on game and fish offenses than regular LEO's do for regular criminal offenses. Lower 4th amendment hurdles for game wardens.

I thought it was funny.

What is between zero and nothing? Any room for a smidge?

Sounds like most cops from my experience.

this is also true Scott

actually I was leaving you and Jawbone out of my post.....and maybe one er two others.

maybe a small smidge....

GW's can not just go on property without a search warrant.

Some of you are not reading anything in this thread. Any LEO can go onto property according to the open field doctrine. This has already been discussed several times in this thread.

So what you are saying is, GW's can't do anything without a police officer holding their hand, and they need 4 search warrants....?

They have to have a 4th Amendment Probable Warrant Thingy written in pokeberry before being able to look at property.

I want to add that most law enforcement agencies reserve the open field doctrine for cases where they have probable cause to enter said property. For example to investigate a complaint or apprehend a suspect, etc. the exception to this is GWs, because the very nature of their job is to apprehend game and fish violators. So in order to do that they put boot traffic in to find areas where it's likely game and fish violations are taking place. No warrant is needed to do that.