Farewell and thank you to our Deputy Game Wardens
This week, we find ourselves at the end of an era, and not a pleasant ending in my estimation. To wit, we bid farewell to a solid group of individuals who have dedicated themselves to making Pennsylvania a better and indeed safer place to hunt and fish and enjoy the outdoors. Hats off to our Deputy Game Wardens and Deputy Waterways Conservation Officers. They have worn “the Hat” honorably.
I have worked with and for some of the greatest guys in the business that is Game Wardening. Over the years, hunter safety training was augmented by many deputies and it was always a pleasure to be in their company. As a police officer, I interacted with wardens and deputies a fair amount and could not ask for a finer group of individuals with whom to share our duties. As a hunter, deputies were around constantly and I have fond memories of the guys gathered around the tailgate of my truck, sharing a cup of coffee on the opener of pheasant season, celebrating with our party at the end of a successful bear drive or eating lunch at our farm on the first day of the deer season.
For this very reason, it troubled me to learn of the manner in which deputies were notified of their termination. I am normally a supporter of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which makes me a bit of an oddity. As an outdoors writer, I tend to give PGC credit for mostly good ideas when it comes to wildlife management and resultant techniques therein. I realize that no one person can be held responsible for policy and procedure when it comes to such matters. Ultimately the board of commissioners makes the decisions. Steve Smith is the executive director of the agency and Col. Rod Danley were tasked with informing deputies of the termination of their positions – not an enviable job. That is understood but the timing and the phrasing troubled me, maybe because I’m not just a writer and a retired educator but because I’m also a law enforcement officer.
Danley, PGC’s director of law enforcement had this to say about deputies, “As I move forward with the vision of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s law enforcement program, I needed it to be professional. The idea of having volunteer officers that are out there enforcing title 34, having the ability to arrest people, issue citations in 2026. This is still a program that we’re running from 1903.”
Danley also said, “I researched the number of incidents that our deputy wardens are handling are .62% of the total call volume. They’re handling less than 1%.” Danley says a survey of full-time wardens two years ago asked about the deputies. “The general consensus that we received from the game wardens was that they were not really contributing, that they were creating work.”
To be fair, we will never know what strategies, if any, were put in place for recruiting new deputies, retraining the existing body of officers and streamlining their law enforcement duties and usefulness to the modern day and age. We cannot, as civilians, fully grasp what the PGC has had to deal with, internally, looking in from the outside, but 123 years is a lot of success.
John Buffone, press secretary for the PGC, said in a statement to central Pennsylvania TV station Fox 43 that “the move aligns with efforts to build the “most efficient and effective full-time, professional workforce.”
This combination of statements chafes me a bit. Maybe it’s the use of the word “professionalism.” Of course every agency needs to act professionally, to change with the times. Training must change, methods and equipment and tactics must change and individual officers must learn to change with the times or be swept away with the tide. Contributions of the deputies were substantial and necessary. These officers have always been and continue to be professionals. From what I have heard from across the wide segment of Game Commission employees, deputies, citizens, hunters, etc., deputies were indeed valued and appreciated. Numbers are down in the deputy ranks, and in some areas there are zero deputies to fill the existing vacancies as they are retiring at a rate faster than they can be recruited.
When it comes to professionalism, I can only relay what I have observed firsthand over the years. I have patrolled with the Game Commission. I have taught their deputies. I have spent time watching them do their job and doing it well. I am proud to have been on their team. I have noted grateful citizens relieved when a deputy showed up on scene and handled “the problem.” Deputies disregarded their own personal safety so they could look out for someone else. I have watched savvy officers diffuse most difficult and sometimes dangerous situations with a kind word of understanding or a humanizing joke. And on more than one occasion I have witnessed a subject extend a handshake to a deputy following a violation and the issuance of a citation(s) and thank the officer for being a good Joe. That may, indeed, be the true mark of a professional within the law enforcement ranks.
These deputies have, and will always have, my respect to the very end. And indeed, this looks like the end of the line for our deputies.
Tradition might be the best word to sum up the sacrifice and selflessness that accompanies volunteering for this type of duty. I’m just sorry the tradition had to end in this manner.
Thank you for your service. Don’t forget to thank a deputy.
Dave Bates writes a weekly outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at alphaomegashootingsolutions@gmail.com