Behind the Badge - Changing Times
Changing Times
District Game Warden Mark Pollert
It was time for a change.
I had attended college and was working a good job with great people.
I had been on the job for several years.
I worked my way up the ladder and was doing well.
There was only one problem.
My heart was in another place.
I recall in high school, counselors telling me that becoming a game warden would be very difficult.
Game warden opportunities were few and far between.
Openings for a game warden came about seldom, sometimes there were years between openings.
Back then, most openings happened through retirement.
As such, I chose a completely different career path, but the desire to be a game warden never died.
Being determined, I persisted and eventually was hired.
I began my career as a game warden in the early 1990s.
I was so proud to become a game warden.
It truly was a lifelong dream.
Looking back, I am amazed at the changes I have seen.
When I was hired, we went through eight weeks of basic law enforcement training at the law enforcement academy in Bismarck.
Immediately thereafter, we reported to our duty station and began working on our own.
There was no additional structured training.
You learned by doing, and of course, by making mistakes.
Nowadays, new wardens attend basic law enforcement training for nearly three months and spend nearly four more months field training with other game wardens around the state before being on their own.
When I began working, reports, including incident and case reports, were completed in handwritten triplicate form.
This involved a lot of planning on what to write.
You could not do the report on a computer and simply edit the document as necessary.
White-out correction ink was useful but didn’t look very professional.
Thank goodness for computers!
Another major change for game wardens has evolved in communications.
Originally State Radio Communications would contact you via your in-truck state radio to pass along information.
This was not always a good method of receiving information regarding a possible violation.
Many people had radio scanners in their homes and would monitor State Radio transmissions.
Because of that, they might be tipped off that you were heading their way to check on a possible violation.
More than once I had to stop at the rural small-town pub to call State Radio for more detailed information on a landline telephone to avoid the call being scanned.
I always felt a little uneasy walking into the bar and asking to use their phone, knowing everyone in the bar was staring at me.
I recall another time when my then, 3-year-old son, accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of our house and could not get out.
My wife called State Radio.
They in turn broadcast the information to me.
Of course, all local law enforcement and everyone with a radio scanner could hear the exciting news as I headed toward home for the rescue.
Originally the only telephone wardens had was a landline in their home for conducting Game and Fish business.
People wanting to get in touch with the game warden would call the same number as anyone calling your home for personal matters.
This meant that your spouse or children may be answering calls that were meant for the game warden.
Of course, the public expected them to know the answers to their Game and Fish questions.
Eventually we were given a separate phone line to our homes with an answering machine that took messages when you were not there.
Now, issued cell phones allow for immediate and secure exchange of communication.
Our patrol vehicles can double as our office.
We have computers that aid in dispatching us to calls, can monitor where other units may be working, have access to driver’s license and Game and Fish license information, and anything we would be able to do in a home office.
Smart phones do much of the same.
These are just a few of the changes I’ve experienced in such a short period of time.
I haven’t touched on all the technological changes in the boating, fishing and hunting world.
They are beyond what I could have ever imagined.
I am still proud to say that I am a game warden in North Dakota and have truly enjoyed my time with the department.
I have had the privilege of working with so many dedicated and professional wardens, department employees, as well as staff from other agencies.
I have gotten to know many people from the public who I now call personal friends.
I have witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly in people.
Thank goodness, the good far outshines the bad.
With the grateful understanding of my family, since 1991, I’ve worked all major hunting season openers, countless weekends, holidays, in scorching sunshine, blizzards, and all hours of the day and night.
It’s again time for a change.