Michigan's Poaching Hotline Helps Get the Bad Guys

Details

Published: 10 January 2015

(Provided by Michigan DNR)

Field officers maintain contact with the RAP room when a report is filed.The sign - Law Enforcement Communications Section - is as nondescript as the standard office door on an unadorned white wall deep within the recesses of Lansing's Constitution Hall.

But inside that secured door is a non-stop center of activity: the RAP Room.

The RAP (Report All Poaching) Room is staffed 24/7 by as many as seven personnel at a time. It is the main link between the public and the Michigan DNR Law Enforcement Division.

The Report All Poaching hotline was created in 1980 when the state Legislature designated a small percentage of the money raised by hunting and fishing license sales toward developing an easy method for citizens to report illegal hunting and fishing activity to the DNR. It has grown into a 1,000-square-foot room, outfitted with the kind of high-tech equipment one often finds at county or state regional dispatch centers. At each of the workstations, six computer dispatchers working in the RAP Roomscreens give dispatchers as much information as they could possibly need to direct the state's conservation officers to the scene of a complaint - and what the COs need to know once they get there.

Computer screens display information on the current location of COs (through the GPS monitoring equipment on their patrol vehicles), as well as access to the state's Law Enforcement Information Network, the state's licensing records, the radio system, the Internet, and even the criminal history of those whom the COs contact.

Read more …

Michigan Establishes Bass Tourney Reporting System

Details

Published: 29 December 2014

(Provided by Michigan DNR)

The Michigan DNR strongly encourages bass tournament organizers to use its Michigan Fishing Tournament Information System (www.mcgi.state.mi.us/fishingtournaments), a web application designed to allow bass tournament directors to schedule events at DNR access sites and to report their catch results online.

The web application†will be†available beginning Jan. 1 for tournament directors to use for scheduling their 2015 tournaments. This application gives tournament directors the ability to view other bass tournaments scheduled on a selected waterbody, so they can plan appropriately.

Read more …