Western District

PRE-SEASON FISHING ACTIVITY
During the month of March EnCon Police initiated and responded to 76 incidents involving pre-season fishing. Of the 76 incidents, EnCon officers made 13 arrests and issued 46 warnings.

OVERBAGGING STRIPED BASS

On March 16th, EnCon Police Officer Nick Miofsky received a complaint of five fishermen keeping undersized Stripers from the Housatonic River in Shelton. Officer Miofsky located the five individuals and issued them summonses for the violation.

ENCON POLICE MAKE ARREST IN FATAL BOATING ACCIDENT
On 3/22/2013 officers from the EnCon Police Boating Accident Reconstruction Unit (BARU) arrested a subject by warrant for Reckless Boating in the First Degree, Failure to Maintain Proper Lookout and Speed in Excess of Slow-No-Wake zone. The charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the EnCon Police into a fatal boating accident that occurred on December 7, 2012 on the Housatonic River in Shelton. The accident resulted in the death of a passenger in the subject’s boat when he fell overboard and subsequently drowned. The EnCon Police BARU investigation determined that the victim was ejected from the boat when it collided with a dock piling while the subject was trying to return his boat to the Sunnyside Boat Ramp.

Eastern District

COMMERCIAL FISHERIES ENFORCEMENT

On March 12, 2013 officer Ulkus and Sergeant Kane were conducting a commercial fishing inspection in New London Harbor area. The fishing vessel Mystic Way was off loading fish at the pier. Sergeant Kane had previous knowledge that one of the crewmen had an outstanding arrest warrant from Groton Town Police department. The accused was taken into custody and transported to Groton police department.

On two separate dates in March the fishing vessel Mystic Way was determined to have offloaded more than the legal possession limit of 30,000 pounds of whiting. Both offloads and inspections were conducted by officers from the East Marine sector. On the first trip the vessel captain had 600 pounds over the limit and on the second trip a different captain had 800 pounds over the legal limit. Both violations were referred to NOAA office of law enforcement, National Marine Fisheries service special agent.
On March 30, 2013 the fishing vessel Anne Kathryn was boarded by officers at the Stonington Town dock. During the inspection officers discovered that the vessel captain had 1,305 pounds of summer flounder on board. The commercial trip limit for fluke is 1,200 pounds. The captain of the vessel was issued a written warning for exceeding the summer flounder trip limit.

DUI ARREST

On March 24, 2013 officer Stone was conducting a patrol of the Baldwin Bridge State boat launch in Old Saybrook just prior to 10:00 P.M. Officer Stone noticed a vehicle enter the launch parking lot. It did not appear that the operator was at the launch to fish or boat. The operator was observed throwing a piece of trash out of his vehicle window. When the operator attempted to leave, officer Stone noticed an equipment violation and the operator also failed to stop at a stop sign. A motor vehicle stop was conducted on an adjacent street to the launch. The operator of the vehicle appeared to be under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and was arrested after failing the standardized field sobriety tests.

MISSING PERSON SEARCH

Marine district officers, including EnCon Police Canine units searched Hammonassett Beach State Park for a missing person after an unoccupied vehicle was discovered. The extensive search began on the evening of March 27, 2013 and continued for the next few days using canines, vessels and foot patrols. EnCon officers were assisted by the United States Coast Guard, State Police, Madison Police, East Haven Police and the local fire department. The search spread to surrounding towns and marsh areas without the individual being found. The incident continues to be investigated by the EnCon police division.

FISH AND GAME ENFORCEMENT

On March 20th, 2013 Officer Vroman met with the subject of his arrest for three counts of False Statement in the procurement of a Connecticut Resident hunting license. The New Hampshire resident had purchased a resident license for deer hunting in the fall of 2012. Officer Vroman had checked him during that time and later learned that he was a non-resident. After application and receipt of the warrant, the subject turned himself in to Officer Vroman and was processed and released on a $500 non-surety bond.

As always, good work!!

Mycept, there is no clear cut answer to your question. It is up to the individual officer to decide what enforcement action (verbal warning, written warning or summons) to take when they come across a violation. There are a number of variables involved such as past history of violations for the person, (we can and do check priors on our own in-house database so we know if someone has already received a warning), what the violation actually is and as most experienced officers develop a really good ability to sense if a person truly doesn't know the law or if they are lying to the officer (yes, it's true....people lie to the police...nobody on CTF would ever do that but there are members of the public that do). If it's a situation where it appears to be a lack of knowledge about an area or an honest mistake, the officer may issue a warning.

As far as the likelihood of a rec fisherman getting a warning, it happens all the time. We don't count tickets/arrests for the purpose of evaluating our officers. They are judged on quality of their work, not quantity. For example, in April there were a total of 274 inland recreational fishing incidents. Of these, officers issued 59 summonses and 77 written warnings. Generally the numbers of written warnings are higher than summonses as we also use enforcement action as a method of educating the public on the laws. If a person receives a written warning and go on to commit another violation at a later date, you would probably be safe to assume that they are going to get a summons next time they are caught.