Your 2005 WCO of the year!

[petey]

This is the "moron" that's been pretty much harassing our county for the past 4 years. If you get stopped by him, you'll be having a date with the courts for sure. I've heard some pretty outragoues storieds about WCO Bimber...some are almost hard to believe; from getting arrested for littering by not picking up spent shotgun hulls, or littering for having a candy bar wrapper in your pocket and not having the little corner that got ripped off, and the list goes on and on.

Anyhow, I think he stepped over bounds on this one. So what that a bunch of College kids were swimming at 1:00 am in the morning.... It doesn't give a Wildlife Conservation Officer the right to detain a bunch of women wearing nothing but undewear, and not allowing them to put clothes on. Tell me what "Game law" they broke???

At least the Judge finally slapped him on the wrist a little. I hate to say it, but I hope those gals sue the pants off of him

Oh by the way, this was the tri-state (PA,MD,VA (I think)) WCO of the year last year b/c of all of his arrests. One of those guys that almost make you afraid to step out of your house in blaze orange. I'd say the major consensus is the Community is fed up with him.

Here's the local news story.
http://www2.theclarionnews.com/General_News/52025.shtml

My favorite quote of the whole story

“When Officer Bimber was asked about being instructed in many other cases of his illegal actions, he stated that, ‘I don’t always agree with judges’ and attorneys’ interpretation of the law.’

“Judging by his own words, it seems Officer Bimber will continue to break the law until someone finally takes his badge.”

[M.T. Pockets]

I'm usually a big supporter of law enforcement, maybe because the local Sheriff and several deputies are friends of mine and they have enough experience and people sense to "protect and serve" the general population.

More or less, they catch bad guys and put them away. Other times good people make a mistake, and a warning or citation is in order, but it has to be a pretty blatent violation of a real violation.

To me it sounds like Officer Bimber needs some time at the Andy Griffith school of common sense law enforcement.

[Skyline]

Sadly, the number of charges laid does not necessarily indicate GOOD law enforcement practices.

First off, let me say that there are many great conservation officers out there doing a lot of good work...you guys know who you are, so do not take what I have to say personally.

If you look at the overall enforcement picture for wildlife infractions through out North America you will notice a disturbing trend................most of the charges are minor offences that do nothing to decrease the poaching and illegal trade in wildlife.

In one annual enforcement report that I looked at in excess of 80 % of the charges by a wildlife agency were for offences such as failing to leave the wing on a game bird and having a loaded weapon in a vehicle (where it is not legal). The indications were also that the majority of the charges were the result of road blocks on highways.

It is a symptom of larger problems.............lack of personnel in the field, and in this case I mean out in the field/bush......not in a truck on a highway, and a lack of discretion on the part of some officers.

One problem is related to sickly state and provincial budgets for wildife enforcement.

The second is a lack of understanding of enfocement officers on using discretion and cultivating the local people to assist them in their work. If you constantly lay nickel and dime charges against people just to boost your 'stats' and/or make a supervisor happy, you quickly alienate the general public...........the ones who might come to you with some information on a poaching ring or a guy that is shooting game out of season, etc.

Letting an average every day hunter off with a warning for minor wildlife infraction may just create some good will and that hunter is far more likely to call with good information about a serious problem, than if he was charged for forgetting to leave the wing on one of his birds. (I am not suggesting that 'problem children, mouth pieces and repeat offenders shouldn't have their wrists slapped).

I have noticed a downward spiral in the use of 'discretion' by the law enforcement community as a whole in the last decade, but particularily with the wildlife enforcement agencies.

[petey]

I'm with you MT.

Heck my brother-in-law is a State Policeman and he's even said that everyone at the district pretty much can't stand this guy.

I've personally met Mr. Bimber 1 time...and that was enough for me. My own opinion of him is that he's an arrogant, pompass, ....well I'll stop there. I've never had a run in with him "in the field" nor do I wish too. Much like Skyline suggests, I believe he's actually HURTING to future of hunting in our area. People are fed up with being harrased. And he'll go out of his way to find something he can charge you with.

I believe his philosophy is: I don't give warnings

Very sad times for hunting around my neck of the woods with Mr. bimber and his posse of wanna-be cops.

I know we have several WCO on board, active and retired. What's your take on this story? I know it's kind of hard to judge based off of 1 case, but if you were driving down the road at 1:00 am and saw an adult crossing a bridge in his shorts, would you detain them until police arrived b/c you "thought" they were underage drinking...although there was no proof and you had none?

Personally it sounds to me like just an excuse to google up some young girls in their underbritches

[honga]

SkyLine pretty much hits the nail on the head. The focus of Conservation LE needs to be on developing a relationship with your patrol area's community that fosters cooperation. Give a break when you can and it will come back as info or help on a real conservation violation.
CO's need to work as hard to educate as they do to write tickets.

Sad to say it but things are really changing here in Maryland. It seems that incident numbers, warnings, patrol of state parks and a numbers game with tickets are taking precedence over conservation. Poor leadership is the problem here, ex-State Police and Park rangers who have no background in Game Warden/Marine Police work are running the outfit and trying to make it work like any other police agency...WHICH IT IS NOT!

[fabsroman]

honga,

It is nice to see another guy from Maryland on the board. I never had any run ins with game wardens until I started law school. Since then, which is about 10 hunting seasons, I have run into game wardens about 8 times out in the field and would say that half of those incidents were pleasant and the other half were not, and not because I was given citations or not. There were two incidents where I was given a citation, and both were dropped (i.e., I was found not guilty) when I went to Court. There was another citation, which I got my first week of law school, that I flat out paid because I was ignorant of the law back then except for being able to figure out that I was guilty. Should have gone to Court and asked for a PBJ. However, I digress. That incident was just fine with me because the game wardens were doing their job and they were polite. They even decided not to confiscate our guns, which was nice of them since I was shooting a brand new, out of the box, Beretta o/u.

I believe that the majority of game wardens are pretty good people. It is just the couple bad ones that we hear about all the time.

Petey,

If enough people were to complain about this guy to the legislature and the Governor, I think you guys might make some headway. Remember, you elect your representatives and can always decide to vote for somebody else. I truly believe that the squeky wheel gets the grease. If you guys don't complain about this guy, nobody will ever know what the problem is. Nowadays, I try to write my State representatives an e-mail on every issue that irks me, especially the recently proposed "assualt weapon" ban. If you don't complain to the proper people, there is nobody to blame but yourself.

As far as detaining those girls swimming in their underwear, I think that is terrible, and I think it is even worse to award LEO's and game wardens with a honor for giving out the most citations. Any LEO, and I mean any, could write out a book or two of citations a day if he/she chose to, and I have seen those types of LEO's and haven't been really impressed with them.

Skyline,

I completely agree with you.

[Classicvette63]

That jerk is going to screw around until another Claude Dallas situation develops. Then some average guy is going to have a heap of undeserved trouble on his hands.

Sadly, these types of gung ho lowlifes are becoming more prevelant. In the area where I hunt, there are two bunny cops I will not speak to or even acknowledge. If they don't like it, too bad. On the other hand there is one WCO who I have met on two occasions. From those meetings, I would back him up anytime, anywhere for anything. It's ashame there aren't more like him.

[drummer]

What a tool.Most of the COs I know are tops, but sometimes there's one that wants to be Barney Fife.:rolleyes: