COLUMBUS, Ohio | The Ohio Inspector General, Randall Meyer, issued a report Friday on the investigation of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife personnel for allegedly hunting while on duty.

The report cites 18 employees for tagging in deer as personal hunts, while listed as being on the time clock at ODNR.

In all 490 ODNR employees reported harvesting a deer in season, with 18 having improperly done so while on duty, Meyer said.

The initiative began as Mayer completed an earlier investigation which resulted in the criminal prosecution and conviction of two Ohio Department of Natural Resources wildlife officers who were deer hunting while on duty in Brown County.

According to ODNR officials, Meyer suspected the activities might be more than an isolated incident, and launched a review of timekeeping records for the days when any of the 490 employees at the division of wildlife reported harvesting a deer.

For 18 wildlife employees, the search revealed conflicting information which showed wrongful activity. According to the report, either the employee was on-duty while engaged in deer hunting activities, or off-duty and falsifying work records to obtain pay they were not entitled to receive.

Prosecuting attorneys in several Ohio counties have been provided the report of investigation for further consideration, including Adams County, Belmont, Butler, Champaign, Columbiana, Defiance, Fayette, Franklin, Gallia, Geauga, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Mercer, Sandusky, Stark, Vinton, and Wyandot Counties.

Ohio Inspector General Report can be seen at www.maysville-online.com.

Hey if they were hunting at least they were in the woods not in a coffee shop some where. It could have been worse.

Employees of the state paid to uphold the law.....abusing their authority and breaking the very laws they are paid to enforce....and all you say is " at least they're in the woods..."

Thats the problem with society today

It's weirdly refreshing to have a scandal that's not about sex or money. I get what yer saying Posey. 18 of 490 (96.5 percent to the good). They did tag in the deer. Dock their pay and warn em.

Wow you guys are nuts. How can you possibly find a way to condone this !!!!

According to the report, either the employee was on-duty while engaged in deer hunting activities, or off-duty and falsifying work records to obtain pay they were not entitled to receive.

Or as a cross examining attorney would say,

"Sir, Which time were you lying?

Wrong is wrong. These officers should be setting the example.

I labelled it a scandal, albeit a minor one, but this is peanuts compared to the stuff that was on here about our old DNR boss and the cronyism that went on there. You want to cast stones go for it. The Columbus Dispatch had the best info. They do not have an office to go clock in and clock out. They are in the field doing the job. They should have the ability and mechanism to take time to enjoy the resource as well. This was also over a multi year period and they are not all officers either the story calls them employees. Ohio don't have 490 CO's. Maybe the CO's should tighten up they're timecards if they need to. Think they bill the state for every minute they deal with some lame phone call in the middle of the night? Or answer stupid questions at the grocery store? Bet they will now.

Glad they were caught.....hope appropriate consequences follow for each case.....exposure of such should nip further infractions.

Interesting how Fayette and Highland counties have been high profile "hot beds" for poaching activity over there in recent past years.......and these same counties have now netted problematic ODNR employees with this deer scandal.

Go figure .....

And this is NOTHING compared to what has unfolded in Kentucky this past week

It is an interesting situation. For government employees it creates issues. In the private sector there are many professional courtesies extended to select individuals. If some of these guys were salaried, it makes the assessment even more difficult to find guilt in my opinion. Time card fraud is an issue and should not be taken lightly. The duck hunting issues in Ky and In are really a pro and con to a degree. If the world was run without politics and back room deals, these situations probably wouldn't occur. But, sometimes gratuities can pay off and it wouldn't surprise me if sportsmen gained in regard to the duck situation.

same thing goes on here. I have hunted enough of our FWA properties to know how the game is played.

Manager always seem to get drawn, employees hunting unfilled reserve hunts on the clock, off limits waterfowl areas and you hear gun shots at sunrise, rigged drawings...

This is the good old boy system and they use these places as their own private hunting clubs. When you are on the DNR payroll making $11/hour, I guess this is one of the 'fringe benefits' that keeps you there...

Yeah, i heard of employees at crane that supposedly get to hunt "restricted areas". I am sure things like this go on all the time.

How many mechanics work on their own cars when things get slow. I don't see it any different. At least they were in the woods so they could be there & see for themselves when hunting laws get broke.
I would much rather have a DNR guy hunting next to me than goober out with a borrowed shotgun blasting everything in sight, "been there done that"!

I don't really have a problem with it. I guess it's the least we can do is let them enjoy a litlle perk like this for what we expect them to work for. The lack of pay is why myself and so many others decided not to go into that line of work.

Lack of pay is exactly why I decided not to major in Wildlife Biology. I took some Wildlife Biology Classes and got to know some of the people that work for IDNR today. I had three classes with two different Wildlife Biologist. One worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service as an undercover CO for 30+ years before retiring and the other guy is the Chief of Indiana's Fish and Wildlife Division today. Both are great guys and love the outdoors as much as anyone. They chose to be come biologist and it was not for the pay. Even the Chief doesn't make much compared to other executives in the private sector.

I talked to my counselor and he told me that the year I graduated there were only two jobs in Wildlife Biology and one of them was up in Alaska at that time. I stayed with my Environmental Science and Conservation of Natural Resource Major and got a job within a few months after graduating from my field.

I have a lot of respect for these guys that work for IDNR. And the CO's put their lives in danger almost every day. They are checking on hunters who are carrying guns. Now many police officers have to deal with people who are armed? And these CO's work a lot by themselves. They are few and far between and they are charged with protecting our natural resources. They do this even when it's raining and cold outside or there is 2 ft of snow on the ground. They often are found in remote sections of the woods doing their job of catching poachers and protecting the wildlife resources.

If they hunt a few hours while on the job I don't really see much of a problem with that. Big deal. It's not like they are robbing banks or something. Yes it's unethical to fill out your time card and say you were working when you were actually out hunting deer. But when you think about it these CO's are police officers and a police officer is on duty 24/7. They go to work if they see a crime in progress and that's not always when they are scheduled to work.

Like someone above said they often get calls in the middle of the night or get asked questions about wildlife enforcement issues while shopping at the grocery store. I know myself I have a few questions for the CO's when I get a chance to see them out in the field. Most every time they take a few seconds to answer my questions. They are not only enforcers of the law but advisors of the rules to the public.

To me they are the good guys. The bad guys are the one's who hunt illegally or take too many fish at a time. These are the guys that are akind to the same people that shot the passenger pigeon into extinction. Today we don't allow that to happen anymore. Now we have rules and laws that help to MANAGE the game populations and fish.