The Maryland Natural Resources Police
Needs Your Support!
2011 - Directory for Information
- Where Are We Now as the 2012 legislative session comes before us. Find out what is happening.
- Thanks, Bill Miles for your support for 2 years now.
Where we are now.
It is shameful to watch the decay of the Natural Resources Police with its long history dating back to 1868 when the Oyster Police Force was created to protect Maryland's sunken treasure - Oysters. In a simplistic view, it seems like NRP's fate is tied to the oysters; so, as the oysters die out, so does NRP.
Read the paper and you learn about more atrocities committed against the fisheries. One illegal anchor gill net had so many rockfish, the season had to be closed, not even considering the additional nets found by officers. We know crabs are just hanging on. Oysters are down to 1% of the population of years past.
The numbers of officers continues to fall as we work to save the agency from being taken over by another agency or that it simply just fades away. Even though the legislature creates more laws and harsher penalties, they have not protected the number of officers who do the enforcement? Live, fully equipped law enforcement officers must be on the scene to enforce these laws. Electronics are a great tool, but they are just that, a tool. You still need a trained officer to check up on what a camera finds, or it’s just a blip on the radar.
Keep in mind that the responsibilities of the Natural Resources Police continue to grow and now include homeland security, state park (public lands) law enforcement, plus an increasing number of laws to be enforced but with fewer and fewer officers each year. Further, the equipment used by NRP continues to age compounding the enforcement issues.
NRP recognizes that most people are law-abiding citizens. Unfortunately, as in all areas of life, there are those who have little concern for the law, especially if they feel they can get away with breaking it. Watermen recognize that there is a manpower shortage. Many have stated that instead of being checked daily, they may not be checked for an entire week or worse. Would you be breaking the law when you know you will be checked that day?
We have been fighting the good fight for over 3 years now. Although our goal of stopping the NRP officer attrition has not been successful, we have more and more people aware of the dilemma. As we warned the legislature and the governor back in 2009, the number of officers continues to decline because the aging police force has many more people leaving the agency each year than NRP is hiring to replace them. Again in 2011, NRP had a class of only new 8 officers when almost two-dozen officers left the department in 2011.
With the continued strong support of Senator Dyson, we are looking at the new legislative session coming up in January 2012. Senator Dyson, Senator Colburn, the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen Foundation, and FOP/NRP Lodge 8 move toward the new session with plans to repeat the authorized strength bill during the 2012 session, with some changes, and having a companion for the bill in the House of Delegates.
We are seeking out other Lodges to meet with us to inform the membership of the situation and solicit their support. We are always looking to the other lodges to get involved through input for legislation and testifying during the hearings as Lodges 16 and 130 did this year.
The plan is to ask for funding sources to improve our chances of creating more positions and keeping them funded, rather than having only the General Fund as the revenue source for NRP as well as setting a minimum number of officers.
NRP is the law enforcement branch of DNR, and it is time that the agencies for which it provides law enforcement coverage help with the funding, not just with short-term overtime money but also for the long haul. Overtime money, that was earmarked for NRP has slowed down as the supporting agencies start to feel the affect of the Department’s budget cuts. You can create all the laws and regulations you want, but who will enforce them? The problem is never those who follow the law; the problem is those who chose to ignore the laws and then knowingly take advantage of NRP's thin coverage due to the lack of officers.
Getting any bill passed through the legislature is not an easy task. As the time to fight comes before us, we need people to testify and to walk the halls of both houses. We need to get recognition from the legislature of what we do to protect the Natural Resources and to have minimum number of officers.
It really is not that hard to testify. It is just talking about what NRP is, who you are and remembering what it once was! We must let the Executive and Legislative branches of the government know that NRP is their only choice to do this job. Our effort needs to be a collective, full, all-out battle involving ALL of us. We cannot let the legislature think it sees a divided NRP.
Just too petrified to speak in public? The number of people present at a hearing indicates to the legislature how much concern is on a topic. Your presence is important! Email the President express your interest; and the Lodge will inform you when you are needed! All you have to do is stand there (and be counted). Everyone can do that! The hardest part is the giving up a day’s wage, since you cannot be paid to participate in helping save this great agency.
Our Thanks to Bill Miles
The Lodge is fortunate to have Bill Miles, Vice Chairman of the Maryland Legislative Sportmen's Foundation, in our corner. Mr. Miles worked closely with the Lodge president to secure the passage of CLEA 2010. Mr. Miles, as the lead person for the Lodge's effort in the legislature, engineered the placement of the bill in the legislature and guided the CLEA to its passage.
This year Mr. Miles assisted us again with the drafting of SB937. He's also assisted by creating panels to speak before the legislature and working with the House to keep the bill moving along. Further, he met with key members of the legislature to solicite support for SB937. We were fortunate to have his continued support with the legislature.
Our Lodge and NRP officers around the state thank you, Mr. Miles!
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