Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has fulfilled a campaign pledge to restore the Alaska Division of Fish and Wildlife Protection, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Her predecessor in the Governor's mansion, Frank Murkowski, had merged the fish and wildlife law enforcement function of the Department of Public Safety into the Division of State Troopers and tasked troopers with enforcing all laws. The move was widely criticized in the outdoors community where a substantial reduction in fish and wildlife enforcement efforts was predicted and observed.
The paper reported Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan as saying that "part of the problem with the merged departments was that officers who were supposed to be focused on wildlife were not able to devote enough attention to that aspect of their jobs because of their law enforcement obligations. The separation should help resolve that, he said.
"They'll still be doing some blue shirt work, but their primary focus is now back to wildlife enforcement, which is what they need to be (doing)," he said."
Read the entire story in the Anchorage Daily News >>>
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