CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The top man with the West Virginia Natural Resources Police is headed for civilian life. Colonel Bobby Cales will retire this week after 22 years of service with the DNR.
Cales, speaking on West Virginia Outdoors, was quick to deflect any attention from himself for any success the agency has enjoyed under his watch.
“I appreciate all the men and women within the ranks of our organization. They are phenomenal and they are who makes this happen. I can give all the guidance I can, but if you don’t have the right people out there, it’s not going to happen,” Cales said.
Cales started his career as an officer with the Hinton Police Department, but even when he took the job it was a stepping stone to gain the experience he knew he would need to become a Game Warden or as they were called then Conservation Officer. He worked 17 years as a Conservation Officer before he rotated to a position as the state’s Resiliency Officer with the state Department of Homeland Security. Then DNR Director Steve McDaniel brought him back to the agency as Colonel following the retirement of former Colonel Jerry Jenkins.
He instituted several new programs for the Natural Resources Police. The swiftwater rescue team had been instituted during Jenkins’ tenure, but Cales knew the value of the team and the importance of their mission. So he made it a priority to beef up their training and gear.
“I improved the capabilities of it through my time here as Colonel. It’s extremely effective during emergency events or whitewater events because we police the whitewater as well. It’s been very effective and we are well trained in that and we train to improve our capabilities,” he said.
The teams were instrumental in saving lives in high water events dating back to the major floods of 2016 and last year’s Fathers Day flooding in Wheeling and Valentines Day floods in Mingo and McDowell Counties.
While those teams work on the surface, Cales also saw a need and an opportunity to equip the agency to patrol below the water’s surface as well. He introduced the DNR Dive Team and believed it was an important addition to investigative police work.
“We have underwater capabilities of searching underwater for evidence or unfortunately for drowning victims. Sometimes we have to retrieve vehicles. You don’t want a vehicle or boat with gas in it under water,” said Cales.
The search for evidence by trained law enforcement personnel also means the chain of custody of any evidence collected from a lake or river cannot be challenged because it was confiscated and handled by trained law enforcement. Such a stipulation is a key consideration when evidence in any criminal matter is brought to trial.
Cales was also the one who initiated the K-9 unit for DNR. Up until that point, dogs were never part of the agency’s makeup, but their addition made complete sense.
“I was able to understand the need because I handled a dog for four years with the city police department, so I had an appreciation for how effective they were,” he said.
But the DNR’s K-9 Corps looks a little different than most law enforcement. The agency has sporting dogs, mainly retrievers or pointers and setters.
“Each dog actually has a species it’s trained to detect. Deer, turkey, bear, waterfowl and I think we’re even working on one that can key on turtles,” Cales explained. “They do tracking for indivduals, they have firearms detection, and any kind of article search they’ve really improved this department’s capabilities.”
Cales said he leaves the department in good hands and poised for the future.
“It’s the highest honor of my professional lifetime. I’ll miss the department, and I’ll be on the sidelines watching them, but they will not miss a beat through this transition and the department is well positioned for future success in operations.” he said.