Low pay and poor morale are driving out these Pa. conservation officers

Erin Czech is one of Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s waterways conservation officers, or WCOs, who patrol large territories — often alone.

Czech and her work colleagues apprehend drunken boat drivers, verify fishing licenses, investigate illegal dumping, assist in stocking millions of trout, serve warrants, and uncover the occasional meth lab.

The 54-year-old Philly native, who lives in Cheltenham, Montgomery County, patrols all of Philadelphia. That includes the Delaware River and Schuylkill, as well as parts of Montgomery County and Southern Bucks County by foot and boat. She works with a partner while on a boat. Philly police summoned her recently to aid in a successful search for a lost child in Pennypack Park because she knows the woods so well.

“The expectations have evolved with the job, and it’s not what it used to be,” Czech said. “You might arrive at a boat access area at night by yourself, have to pat someone down, and they’ve got needles on them, or you end up in an altercation. It makes you think, ‘Do I really want to be doing this?’”

WCOs say low pay compared to other law enforcement agencies, fear for personal safety with aggressive lawbreakers, and other factors have driven many officers away in recent years, according to the union, FOP Pennsylvania Conservation Police Officers’ Lodge 114. That has left shortages and gaps in enforcement, officers say.

Of the 2023 officer-training graduation class, nearly one-quarter have already left the agency mostly for better-paying law enforcement jobs, according to publicly available data analyzed by Brian O’Neill, a part-time deputy WCO who started a petition seeking higher starting pay for full-time officers. About one in five officers leaves annually.

As of June, there were 59 full time WCOs and 11 sergeants, according to Fish and Boat Commission payroll data. The commission also hires deputy WCOs.

Previously, full-time WCOs had to complete a one-year paid academy program that included law enforcement certification, watercraft safety, fish and boat laws, environmental protection, weapons use, and physical fitness. The certification, known as Act 120, made them eligible for other law enforcement jobs. However, the Fish and Boat Commissioner recently stripped out Act 120 certification, which the union says was done to make it harder for newer recruits to leave for other agencies.

The union, and officers like Czech, who is married to a game commission officer, appeared at a recent Fish and Boat Commission meeting, petitioning for more pay. The union says regular collective bargaining won’t work because the starting pay gap is too big right now. If it’s not raised, the union says, more officers will be lost, especially those living in higher-cost-of-living areas such as Philly and its suburbs.

“If you look at the salaries they make and compare that to what an officer in Maryland or New York or New Jersey or Ohio make, there’s a huge disparity in pay,” said Walt Buckman, vice president of the FOP Lodge 114. “And that’s been the case for a very long time.”

FOP Lodge 114 represents the waterways conservation officers who work under the Fish and Boat Commission, as well as game officers who work under the state’s Game Commission. Game commission officers have the same pay scale, and face similar issues, but the attrition rate has not been as high, Buckman said.

The Fish and Boat Commission e-mailed The Inquirer a statement after a request to speak with Fish and Boat Commission executive director Timothy Schaeffer. It said 23 cadets are enrolled in the current training class.

“Since commission management is currently in open negotiations with the union about the WCO’s collective bargaining agreement, which includes compensation, we cannot comment publicly on any issues covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” the statement said.

Waterways conservation officers (WCOs) start at $48,196. But other law enforcement agencies, such as municipal police departments, pay much more, according to FOP Lodge 114. A WCO’s salary scale maxes out at $76,592 after 22 years.

A Philadelphia police officer starts at about $66,000 after graduating the academy. An officer in Lower Merion can start at $87,000. In New Jersey, comparable officers start at $59,000. West Virginia recently gave its conservation officers a boost in starting salary to $59,538, a figure a Pennsylvania WCO would need 11 years to reach.

FOP Lodge 114 estimates that it would cost the Fish and Boat Commission $730,000 to raise the minimum starting wage to $55,425, or 1% of its current $68 million budget, which is funded mostly through fishing licenses, fees, and grants.

Pay often becomes an issue when an officer living in a lower-cost county in Pennsylvania graduates from the academy and is stationed in a higher-cost area such as Philadelphia, according to Ron Evancho, a sergeant in the Southeast Region.

“When a cadet wants to join the agency, we go to their house and talk to them,” Evancho said. “We’re very open about what the pay, benefits, and expectations are. It is one thing to sit at a table and look at that number on paper and think you can struggle through that,” Evancho said, ”but when you get in the field and see the high cost of living is double from where you are from, it’s a different story.”

Evancho said a cadet living in one part of the state might pay $400 a month for rent. If they are transferred to the Philly area, they might pay $1,800.

“At that point, they’re looking to go somewhere else not because they want to, but because they have no choice,” Evancho said.

The result has been a shortage of officers. Evancho oversees eight districts. Each is supposed to have one full-time officer. However, Evancho has only three officers with openings for five more.

Trout stocking is a big part of the job in spring and fall, with officers expected to lug five-gallon buckets filled with water and fish down embankments to streams.

“Officers get burned out,” Evancho said. “They’re stocking fish five days a week, instead of two or three. And that can lead to shoulder injuries.”

The officers have a range of other responsibilities, such as ensuring boating safety. Consider that there are 300,000 registered boaters in Pennsylvania. But 30,000 of them, or 10%, are in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Just covering the Delaware River is a big job.

Statewide, WCOs arrested 12 people for boating under the influence just over July Fourth weekend. One boat operator tested for three times the legal limit. That same weekend, officers issued 234 general boating citations and 876 warnings. Already this year, there have been at least nine recreational boating fatalities in the state.

Officers also track down erosion infractions, investigate illegal tire dumping, and fracking permit violations.

O’Neill, the deputy WCO who started the petition, lives in Delaware County and has a real estate business. Deputies are paid a daily stipend.

O’Neill said he’s seen new full-time officers arrive from out of the area making $48,000 a year. But those same officers see job openings on municipal police forces starting at $65,00 and $75,000.

“For $20,000 more a year, it’s worth it for waterways conservation officers to look for other jobs,” O’Neill said.

Czech, a former park ranger in Philadelphia, and Evancho both appeared at the commission’s July meeting in support of O’Neill’s petition, as did Abigail Luteri, a new waterways conservation officer assigned to Montgomery and Berks Counties. Luteri said half her salary goes toward rent.

“This financial burden has left me unable to save any money, creating significant stress,” Luteri said. “The high cost of living in certain regions is a glaring issue which must be addressed.”