The Right Path
PICTURED ABOVE
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Conservation Officer Tim Brett patrols KDFWR’s 8th District and is based out of Rowan County. (Photo by Jim Robertson)
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) Conservation Officer Tim Brett’s path to law enforcement has had many twists and turns.
Born into a military family, Brett was born in Vermont and reared in Montana’s Big Sky Country. After his father retired from the Marine Corps and the family settled down in Cynthiana, Ky., Brett attended Morehead State University and earned a degree in criminology.
His journey into law enforcement detoured after college. He worked as a lumber yard safety coordinator in Rowan County, served on volunteer fire departments, and performed canine decoy work for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and the United States Forest Service.
“While doing it, I met several forest service guys, and I thought that it seemed like a cool job,” Brett said. “As I spent time with them, I started to learn more about law enforcement.”
Scope of the Job
With his interest piqued, Brett received an email from his brother-in-law regarding an opening with KDFWR.
“I didn’t know anything about Kentucky Fish and Wildlife,” Brett said. “However, I grew up in Montana, so I had met game wardens, but I didn’t know a whole lot about the job, especially here in Kentucky.”
Brett joined KDFWR in 2017 and soon discovered that Kentucky has more navigable miles of water than any state other than Alaska. According to KDFWR, the state has more than 210,126 acres of waterway along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In addition, the state boasts 227,908 acres of lakes and more than 10,000 miles of streams, which keeps conservation officers busy year-round.
Brett is assigned to Rowan County but patrols the 15 counties within KDFWR’s 8th District.
(Photo by Jim Robertson)
“That is everything from Montgomery County on the westside, to Boyd County on the eastside, up to the Ohio River and south to Wolfe County,” Brett explained.
The primary duties of KDFWR officers are enforcing Kentucky’s hunting, fishing and boating laws, Brett said.
He explained that the duties range from checking hunting, boating and fishing licenses to setting up deer decoys to catch hunters poaching from roadways and spotting turkey bait.
“Our big seasons are deer and turkey,” Brett said. “We will do a lot with turkey bait, and we’ll fly with Kentucky State Police’s helicopters to spot turkey bait.”
Turkey bait, Brett explained, is simply finding areas that hunters use to lure turkeys.
“The hunters are baiting,” he said. “They’re spreading corn, wheat or some other food into their hunting areas, which is illegal.”
Spotting turkey bait areas from the air is easy, as bait such as corn has a great contrast from the green grass.
Setting up deer decoys and waiting for potential poachers is an enjoyable facet of Brett’s myriad of duties.
“We have a deer; we call him “Robo deer,” because we have a remote control that can move its head,” Brett explained. “We will set it up in a place, and we will sit in the woods for however long it takes (until a poacher is caught).”
These cases, Brett continued, make for good cases because often, they result in multiple charges.
“Those are important charges for us because they’re shooting from a vehicle and shooting over a roadway,” he said. “They’re generally on someone else’s property when they’ve shot the deer.”
Fully Sworn
While most of the job involves enforcing laws related to hunting, fishing, and boating, KDFWR officers are fully sworn, and perform duties their colleagues do as well.
“We usually don’t do a lot of traffic patrols,” Brett said, using it as an example. “But we have the ability and skills to do so.”
“We’re usually out at 2-3 in the morning during turkey season before it gets light setting up the bait cases. During deer season, there’s just no telling what hours we’ll be out during that season. It would be impossible to do this job from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”
– Tim Brett, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) Conservation Officer
Working outdoors in wooded areas, Brett said there had been times when KDFWR officers have come across illegal drug activity and investigated.
“It hasn’t been as much lately,” he explained. “Maybe the pandemic has slowed it down for some reason, but before the pandemic, where we’ve got so many forest service roads and lake-access points that are off the beaten path, there are several places people go to do stuff like that.”
Like other agencies, fish and wildlife officers also respond to accidents that require reconstruction for investigative purposes. Only, the crashes they respond to tend to have pieces that can float or sink away.
“(National Association of State Boating Law Administrators) offer boat accident reconstruction (BAR) I and II,” Brett said. “I’ve taken I. There are a couple of officers in each district who do that, and we have some (officers) who have taken BAR II.”
The courses help fish and wildlife officers piece together scenes that factor in many variables.
“It’s all about marks on (the boat),” he said. “It goes back to what we can find as far as the boat, prop cuts, the direction of the props, and determining evidence based on the damage it causes.”
Job Diversity Requires Self-Starters
One of the appeals of the job, Brett said, is its diverseness. During the warmer months, much of his time is spent on the waters of Cave Run Lake.
“A lot of times on the lake, we’re dealing with simple stuff,” he said. “Although we do have some BUIs (Boating Under the Influence) now and then, Cave Run Lake is typically quiet. Generally, our boat stops are for safety violations such as not having life jackets on kids and kayakers without life jackets. It’s not typically criminal offenses, mainly safety.”
(Photo by Jim Robertson)
The job also requires an officer to be a self-starter, Brett said.
“Summertime, when we’re on the boat, it’s more reactive because we’re looking for violations,” he explained. “Otherwise, turkey baiting is a good example of proactive policing. We spend countless hours leading up to turkey season looking for bait and documenting the bait. Community tips are a big thing for us because there’s only a few of us.”
Getting to know one’s area and the people in it can go a long way in generating tips, he added.
“Sportsman’s clubs are a great place to connect,” Brett said. “They want to do things right, and they want their kids to do things right so that they will reach out to us, and that helps a lot.”
Also, partnering with other law enforcement agencies is a plus.
“One of the primary agencies I work with is the forest service law enforcement,” he said. “We share the same work area, which is anywhere in the Daniel Boone National Forest. We will assist them with stuff they enforce that we don’t, such as campsites on the lake. We will take them on our boats and spot for them. It is also important to work with other first responder agencies such as police, sheriff, fire and search and rescue.”
A fish and wildlife officer also must be flexible when it comes to reporting for work.
“It is pretty much by season,” he said. (Boating season) involves a lot of daytime hours, but on weekends, we will spend a lot of time on the water at night. We’re usually out at 2-3 in the morning during turkey season before it gets light setting up the bait cases. During deer season, there’s just no telling what hours we’ll be out during that season. It would be impossible to do this job from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”
Reflecting, Brett said he couldn’t have come up with a better career that suits his love for the outdoors and law enforcement.
“I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, and just being outdoors is great, and it’s pretty much my job,” he said. “It’s hard to call it a job most of the time.”
