Starting next month, game wardens in Washington state will be required to wear body cameras, and some retired Wyoming game wardens said they have mixed feelings about having to put their professional lives on video.
“Unless things have drastically changed since I retired — for day-to-day use — I just don’t see the need for it,” former game warden H.R. Longobardi told Cowboy State Daily.
He retired from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in 2013, and frequently worked in some of the most remote areas of the state.
“Most of my districts were wilderness districts,” he said. “I had enough stuff to pack back in there without having to pack a dang camera.”
Duanne Kerr retried as a Wyoming game warden in 2014 and told Cowboy State Daily that he can see the value of body cameras in some situations.
But he’s not sure that requiring wardens to wear them would be a good idea in Wyoming.
“The purpose of a body camera should be to protect the officer and protect the members of the public that he’s dealing with, and it shouldn’t go beyond that,” he said.
Wyoming Game and Fish doesn’t require its game wardens to wear body cameras, Laramie Region Wildlife Supervisor Matt Withroder told Cowboy State Daily.
He declined to comment on whether the agency is considering it.
Though many police departments and other law enforcement agencies require officers to wear body cameras, they’re still rare for game wardens.
Washington joins a handful of states where wildlife agents wear body cameras. Pennsylvania has been doing it the longest, since 2014.
‘Boost Accountability, Transparency And Safety’
Game warden body cameras will “boost accountability, transparency, and safety in natural recourse law enforcement,” according to a statement from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
That won’t come cheap. The Washington Legislature allocated $915,000 to outfit all 152 of the state’s game wardens with body cameras, according to WDFW.
Accountability is important, Longobardi said. But Wyoming Game and Fish has rigorous game warden applicant screening and training programs to weed out hotheads.
“I think it’s been pretty effective at weeding out the ‘commando’ type of guys,” he said.
Even so, Longobardi said he could see the value of body cameras in some instances. It might be wise to allow them on a case-by-case bases rather than just implementing a sweeping mandate, like Washington did.
“If you have a very serious case, or you’re going to interview a surly suspect, or there’s lots of money involved,” then recording the proceedings with a body camera might be a good idea, he said.
Body cameras might also help settle gripes from the public.
“A particular warden who is getting lots of complaints from the public could be asked by his supervisors to wear a body camera,” Longobardi said.
Kerr said that if Wyoming wardens ever do wear body cameras, they should be held responsible for making sure the cameras are always on and that the batteries are charged.
“It seems like with body cameras, there’s an awful lot of stories about, ‘Gee, I forgot to turn it on,’ or ‘I had it on, but the battery died.’ And I take those stories with a grain of salt,” he said.
Making sure body cameras are on and charged could protect wardens, Kerr said, particularly if they’re accused of brutality.
“If something really goes haywire with a situation and there’s some type of use of force, you end up having to pepper spray somebody, or worse you have to shoot them or use a baton on them, then a body camera might help prove that the use of force was justified,” he said.
‘Catch You In A Dark Alley’
Kerr said there were few situations during his career when a body camera might have come in handy.
He recalled catching a man at Flaming Gorge Reservoir who lived in Utah, but falsely claimed Wyoming residency to get a resident fishing license.
While Kerr was writing out the citation, he said he overheard the man muttering threats to one of his companions along the lines of wanting to catch Kerr “in a dark alley.”
“I called him over and told him, ‘If you’re going to say things like that, you say it to my face. That way, if I meet somebody in a dark alley, I’ll know who I’m dealing with,’” Kerr said.
Later in court, the man tried twisting story, telling the judge that Kerr had unjustly berated him for supposedly making threats that he hadn’t actually made.
“The judge didn’t buy his story,” Kerr said.
But, having a body camera recording of the incident would have been handy if the judge’s opinion had gone the other way, he said.
People Love Wyoming Game Wardens
Longobardi said that going by his experience, the public image of Wyoming game wardens is overwhelmingly positive.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people that I ever dealt with in Wyoming liked seeing the game warden,” he said.
Instead of dreading a warden’s approach, hunters and anglers would eagerly ask them for tips.
“We would all get peppered with questions. ‘Where’s the wildlife? What art the fish hitting on? Where can I find a good elk? Where are all the antelope?’” he said.
He recalled checking the licenses of four out-of-state hunters near Jackson, having a pleasant conversation with them, and even offering them advice on where to go look for game.
“One guy told me, ‘I can’t believe how nice you guys are in Wyoming. Where we come from the game wardens are pissed off all the time. They would never offer help telling us where to go,’” Longobardi said.
If body cameras could help preserve Wyoming game wardens’ sterling reputation, he said, there could be value in them.
Kerr agreed there could be value in body cameras, but added that they shouldn’t become a crutch for game wardens either.
“A body camera is not going to be perfect. It’s not going to catch every word and phrase that’s said, especially if it’s windy out, and the picture isn’t always going to be 100% correct,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
