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FWC Law Enforcement - What we do

Overview

FWC officers provide protection to residents and visitors who enjoy Florida's natural resources, while enforcing resource protection and boating safety laws in the woods and waters of the state. The primary responsibilities of the division include:

• ensuring that residents and visitors who enjoy Florida's natural resources follow all hunting, fishing and resource-protection rules;
• educating the public about boating safety and enforcing boating rules;
• enforcing the rules governing public safety;
• coordinating with federal, state, local and private entities in developing and enforcing regulations; providing search and rescue services; and
• responding to disasters and other critical incidents when needed.

FWC officers have full police powers and statewide jurisdiction. They patrol rural, wilderness and inshore and offshore areas and are often the sole law-enforcement presence in many remote parts of the state. The Division of Law Enforcement has cooperative agreements with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officers are also cross-deputized to enforce federal marine fisheries and wildlife laws, thus ensuring state and federal consistency in resource-protection efforts.

Division of Law Enforcement Sections

Office of Policy, Planning and Professional Standards (OPPPS)

The OPPPS staff are responsible for strategic and operational planning, developing and communicating program policies, improving the Division's internal processes, coordinating the review of rules, reaching out to the community and coordinating policies with Florida's Emergency Response Team partners.

North and South Field Operations (NSFO)

The NSFO section is responsible for uniformed patrol and investigative law enforcement services performed by FWC's 700-plus officer workforce. These services include resource protection, boating and waterways enforcement, maritime and wilderness law enforcement patrol, and mutual aid and emergency response responsibilities. North Operations includes FWC's Northwest, Northeast and North Central regions; South Operations includes the South and Southwest regions.

Law Enforcement Program Coordination (LEPC)

The LEPC section is responsible for coordination of investigations, aviation, K-9, offshore vessels and the special operations group. LEPC staff also provides technical support to the Division for budgeting, personnel and training purposes.

Boating, Waterways and Field Services (BWFS)

The BWFS section is responsible for educating boaters about boating safety, ensuring boat ramp and pier access, installing and maintaining waterway signage, and identifying derelict vessels. The BWFS includes system communications, dispatch coordination, data technology, fleet maintenance and procurement units.

Officers' Authority

Sworn personnel are fully constituted police officers as provided under Florida Statute 379.3311.  This gives them the authority to enforce all laws of the state, not just those relating to resource enforcement. Our officers are also cross-deputized to enforce federal fisheries and wildlife laws.

Officers' Responsibilities

1. Provide protection and enforce laws relating to all wild animal and aquatic resources of the state. This includes game, non-game, furbearers, threatened and endangered wildlife and fish, and marine mammals; encompassing approximately 672 species of wildlife, 208 species of freshwater fish and over 500 saltwater fish species. In doing so, officers patrol over 37 million acres of public and private land, 8,246 miles of tidal coastline, 12,000 miles of rivers and streams, 3 million acres of lakes and ponds, and 11,000 miles of canals.
2. Provide boating safety enforcement on the state's waters in order to ensure the safe usage of our resources. Includes enforcing boating under the influence laws, as well as laws relating to the safe and prudent operation of watercraft, investigating boating accidents, and search and rescue missions.
3. Provide general law enforcement protection to the human resources of the state. One aspect of this is providing general law enforcement patrol in rural, semi-wilderness, wilderness, and offshore areas where no other law enforcement agencies routinely patrol. Officers also respond to a variety of emergencies including natural disasters, civil disturbances, and search and rescue missions. These include such diverse phenomena as hurricanes, riots, wildfires, floods, and providing protection for elected officials (governors and presidents).

Special Sections:

Investigations Section

This unit gives the Division the capability of conducting both overt (uniform) and covert (plainclothes) investigations. It allows FWC to target hard-core commercial violators by conducting long-term undercover investigations. The unit provides direct support to field personnel and has the primary responsibility for the investigation of serious and fatal boating and hunting accidents. The Investigations unit is also responsible for the regulation of Florida's multi-million dollar wildlife trade. Investigators monitor zoos, game farms, wildlife importers, alligator farms, venomous reptile dealers, personal wildlife owners, pet shops, hunting preserves, wildlife rehabilitation centers, taxidermists and falconers to ensure compliance with state and federal laws governing their operations.

K-9 Section

This unit includes 13 K-9 teams located throughout the state. The teams are specially trained in tracking and wildlife detection. The K-9s receive no aggression training and are very "user-friendly." In addition to their law enforcement functions, they have proved to be a great community oriented policing relations tool. This section is recognized as the premier resource-enforcement K-9 unit in the country.

Offshore Patrol

The Division operates four large offshore patrol vessels, the Orion, the J.J. Brown, the Randall and the Guardian, which are stationed in Key West, Carrabelle, Port Canaveral and Crystal River, respectively. The vessels concentrate on large offshore fisheries such as the Tortugas Shrimp Sanctuary, Pelagic Fish and fish trap enforcement.

The crews on these boats often conduct extended patrols that last several days. Much of their work involves federal fisheries enforcement, which is an important commerce in our state. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council regulates fishing west and north of Key West, and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council regulates fishing in Atlantic waters, including Florida, Georgia, and South and North Carolina. Federal waters are known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and extend from state waters out 200 nautical miles from the outermost point in the United States.

Aviation Section

The FWC Aviation Unit plays a vital role in the FWC's effort to enforce conservation and boating laws, protect rare species and safeguard outdoor users. Pilots operate a fleet of 13 aircraft, 6 helicopters and 7 airplanes to conduct a wide variety of missions.

Aircraft are especially valuable in enforcement efforts related to the illegal taking of wildlife (particularly at night), illegal use of nets and promoting boating safety. The Aviation Unit performs many search-and-rescue missions annually, locating lost or overdue outdoor users. Aviation pilots provide flights in support of other divisions of the FWC. The unit cooperates with state, federal and local law enforcement entities, providing flights in support of public safety and homeland security issues.

FWC pilots cover over 74,000 square miles of Florida's lands and waters. This averages around 4,300 square miles per pilot to enforce the natural resource and boating safety laws of the state. With the vast acreage of wildlife management areas, national forests and remote coastlines, the aircraft act as force multipliers by directing limited ground resources to contacts on the water or in wilderness areas. In addition to state lands and waters, the FWC has joint law enforcement responsibility with several federal agencies over the EEZ out 200 nautical miles from Florida's coastline, or over 100,000 square miles of blue water.