SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The graduation of six new Natural Resources Police Officers from the State Police Academy will get the DNR’s law enforcement personnel closer to the goal of full strength.
“Hopefully after the 16th we will have one man for each county and we’re starting to back fill each county which historically has had two men in them,” said Colonel Jerry Jenkins. “We’re making progress.”
The recent graduates are wrapping up their Field Officer Training in their home counties this week and will soon be given their first duty assignments. Jenkins admitted the task being assigned to each officer is steep.
“It’s a lot of area to cover and we rely on the public to assist us in covering a lot of the counties,” he said. “It is certainly a task.”
Added to the duties of the DNR’s law enforcement this year is responsibility for the Hatfield-McCoy Trail. The legislature assigned the duties of patrol and law enforcement on the popular off road trail network in southern West Virginia to the DNR. Jenkins said they took over the job June 1, and for now have been assigning officers to the job. However, they are looking for three permanent officers to be assigned there.
“We’re assigning three people full time to the Hatfield-McCoy,” said Jenkins. “I might add the hunters and fishermen are not paying those salaries. The Hatfield-McCoy Trail is picking up all expenses, vehicles, everything. They’re paying all expenses.”
Jenkins said the contract to handle the law enforcement work with the trial was patterned after the agreement which had been in place for many years between the State Police and the West Virginia Turnpike.
“That’s exactly correct,” Jenkins said. “We pretty much copied that contract when we came up with the Hatfield-McCoy agreement.”