Pat Bizich
Banned
Registered: May 2004
Location: northeast
Posts: 1278 |
Yes ,
Here in Pa they have broader latitude than police.
Game Commission officers and Waterway Conservation officers have full police power to inspect, search, seize, and/or arrest.This police power is not simply for hunting and fishing violations. Commission officers possess the full power to arrest for any violations of the law, hunting and fishing related or not. Game Commission officers can even arrest for a DUI provided they obtain legal grounds for the stop and arrest while within the official scope of their employment.
A Game Commission officer has statewide policing powers. And as such is an agent of the government. The Game Commission officer is still restricted by both the federal and Pennsylvania constitutions. What comes into play is what is in the Game Code versus what is prohibited for police to do per the constitutions.
(The Pennsylvania Game Code), in Section 901(a)(8) provides Game Commission officers the authority to “conduct administrative inspections of persons, licenses and permits, firearms, ammunition and other implements of taking, game bags, game, meat poles, tags, clothing, waterfowl blinds, decoys, tree stands, immediate hunting locations, or any means of transportation used as blinds or hunting locations, any coolers or containers possessed at a hunting location when prima facie evidence of hunting exists.” Note that by the text this applies to even law abiding hunters and anglers who have done nothing wrong and have not even been suspected of doing anything wrong! Per the Pennsylvania Game Code, the only requirement to trigger this broad warrantless and suspicious-less activity is that the Game Commission officer have prima facie evidence of hunting.
Prima facie evidence of hunting includes “possession of any firearm, bow and arrow, raptor, trap or other device of any description usable for the purpose of hunting or taking game or wildlife; possession of the carcass or any part or parts of any game or wildlife; or pursuing any game or wildlife in any manner prohibited by this title or commission regulation.” This means, per the Game Code, that if there is prima facie evidence of hunting, the officer can search basically everything you have, including any container possessed at the hunting location, no matter how small.
Even if you are doing everything by the books, per the Game Code, the simple act of hunting can open you up to a search by a Game Commission officer – even when there is no evidence that any laws have been broken. This is what the Game Commission officer. But there is a great tension there between the Game Code and our constitutions.
A Game Commission officer may go upon any land or water, outside of buildings, except the curtilage of a home in performing his duties; may stop any transportation upon reasonable suspicion or road checkpoints; and search any person, car, clothes, bags, or other containers upon probable cause, consent, exigent circumstances, or other exceptions to the warrant requirement. 34 Pa.C.S. §901(a).
Pennsylvania law authorizes Commission officers to go “upon any land or water outside of buildings, except curtilage, posted or otherwise, in the performance of the officer’s duties.” This broad sweeping rule however does not permit a Commission officer to come into or near your house, your shed, or your yard near your house without probable cause. The PGC follows the Open Field Doctrine, which holds that open fields, even when posted with “No Trespassing” signs “do not provide the intimate setting for those intimate activities that the Amendment is intended to shelter from government or interference or surveillance. There is no societal interest in protecting the privacy of those activities, such as the cultivation of crops that occur in open fields.” Commonwealth v. Russo, 594 Pa. 119 (Pa. 2007). So while a Game Commission officer may, under the Open Fields Doctrine, go onto some private property, it does not give them carte blanch to go onto all of your private property. Where they can go without probable cause depends on how the court defines curtilage. Curtilage is generally considered to be your home and the area of land attached; however, what is or is not curtilage is often determined on a case by case basis.
In order for a Game Commission officer acting in the scope of his official duty to stop a vehicle, the officer must have reasonable suspicion or probable cause. In order for the officer to search the vehicle, he must have consent or possess probable cause. Further, if a Game Commission officer is no longer acting within the scope of his official duties, he cannot stop a vehicle even if he has reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
The Game Code makes it a crime when someone does not answer a Game Commission officer’s questions. But the Fifth Amendment right still applies making any attempt to cite someone for it unconstitutional.
__________________
IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTIME A BREED OR LINE OF DOGS GET POPULAR IT EVENTUALLY LEADS TO ITS RUINATION BY UNINFORMED PEOPLE BREEDING WITHOUT DOING THEIR RESEARCH FIRST.
Gone but never forgotten:
NtChGrCh Dryfork Punkin
NtChGrCh Dryfork Little Blue Baby Doll
2009 Pa Show Dog Of The Year
GrCh Dryfork Little Black Book
Gr.Ch. Make My Day Sunny
Gone too soon RIP my baby girl
Gr.Ch. Black Dog Black Cherry
GrCh Dryfork Black Dog Raine
One of kind and would make a believer out of you when you thought there were no coon left
Home of:
2009,2013,2018 Pa. State
Show Handler Of The Year
CH. Power Pack Pepper
2018 Pa. Show Dog Of Year
Gr.Ch. Batman's Poison Ivy
2011&2013 WTDA Pa State Champion
2011&2013 Overall Hunt For The Cure
Ch. Jay's Greenridge Heidi
In memory of my best friend "Jay"
Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged
|
12-30-2017 11:18 PM
