December 10, 2011
By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn, News-Herald.com
With the Ohio's seven-day general firearms deer-hunting season under
its belt, the state's wildlife officers can reflect on how participants
behaved themselves.
Or misbehaved, as once again commissioned officers with the Ohio
Division of Wildlife spent some of their time issuing citations.
Not that these law enforcement agents had a quota to meet. It's just
that sometimes people do bad things that warrant a ticket, says Jim
Lehman, the agency's law enforcement administrator.
Even though the first few days of this year's gun season were wet,
windy and miserable, the number of citations issued was on par with
previous seasons, Lehman said.
In all, the state's commissioned wildlife officers performed 7,951
contacts and made 909 arrests, up only 2 percent, Lehman said.
Trespassing without written permission was the top ticket item, with
the state's wildlife officers issuing 133 citations.
"It is a high priority for us, given the amount of private property
in the state," Lehman said.
Other frequently encountered violations included unplugged guns (No.
2 at
131 citations), and failure to properly tag a deer (No. 3 with 122
citations), no deer permit (No. 4 with 102 citations) and not wearing
blaze orange (No. 5 with 62 citations).
The failure to wear an orange garment is typically written when
another violation occurs, as the hunter is often trying to avoid
detection, Lehman said.
"Obviously someone who is hunting with a rifle or else hunting
without a deer tag likely won't be wearing hunter orange," Lehman said.
Yet concerns about using the new deer check-in system would result in
unintended violations did not crop up as much as Wildlife Division
officials first thought, Lehman said.
Calls to the Wildlife Division inquiring about the new check-in
process and other matters were up 44 percent, Lehman said.
"Many people called to inquire if they were filling out the tags
properly, and that was encouraging," Lehman said.
Lehman said also that it appears the bulk of successful hunter
employed the telephone to check in their animals, though Lehman believes
using the Internet is even easier.
As for hunters not properly caring for their paper document while
dragging out a deer, that issue will be looked at during the officers'
debriefing procedure, Lehman says.
Lehman did say that many hunters employed some rather unique tools to
weather-proof their filled-in deer tags. This effort included using a
zipper-style of plastic holder given away by wildlife officers that
featured a clear side and an orange side along with a hole for attaching
with a string or plastic cable tie.
Importantly, Lehman says, it is not the object of the wildlife
officers to see who can write the most tickets. If an agent determines
that nothing is deliberate and the hunter makes a good-faith effort, he
more often than not is given a pass, Lehman said.
Carelessness or intentionally trying to evade the law is a different
matter all together, Lehman added.
"We don't want to issue citations when they're not necessary but this
new system is a great tool," Lehman said.
