Evaluating wildlife law enforcement agent and agency effectiveness: a methodology

A project was completed that 1) developed a list of potential primary law enforcement objectives; 2) analyzed the arrest component of agency and agent objectives; and 3) developed a computer model that produced an agent arrest score.

A methodology to select law enforcement objectives using a hierarchy was developed. The objective hierarchy and example objectives are shown.

A crime wildlife related list was developed. Game wardens and wildlife biologists with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, foresters with the Virginia Department of Forestry, and members of 2 private interest groups were surveyed to determine the relative importance of the crimes. Respondents ranked violations on a scale from 1 ("not very wrong") to 9 (livery wrong") relative to a given standard violation. The survey contained 3 sections: (A) specific violation list, (8) species list, and (C) list of violation categories. Differences among groups, consistency in responses, and relative consensus about importance of violations were analyzed.