A 1996 survey of Pennsylvanians by Responsive Management, a Harrisonburg, VA-based polling firm, concluded 87 percent of the residents surveyed believe enforcing fish and wildlife laws is a very important activity. We cannot do the job the public expects us to do without deputies. We'd be in a terrible bind without them. The average deputy has 12 years experience, a full-time job, and sacrifices much of his or her free and vacation time to enforce the commonwealth's wildlife laws. Most are hunters, some are trappers.
Deputies do more than law enforcement.
Additional duties can include giving educational programs to students, teaching hunter-trapper education courses, stocking pheasants, setting and checking bear traps and responding to wildlife complaints. Deputies also have increasingly become a point of contact for the agency because they're familiar public figures in most communities, and can be reached through a local telephone number. Requirements to become a deputy include being 21 years old, undergoing an extensive background check and passing a written examination. Successful applicants attend a one-week intensive training program at the Ross Leffler School of Conservation before being commissioned. Prior to reporting to the school, deputy candidates receive two days of Game and Wildlife Code and regulations training at the region office.