NOAA Law Enforcement

[wcu02mpa]

I have heard of the NOAA law enforcement agency but am wondering to they have their own radio system or do they share with BLM, NPS, USCG or some other agency?

Thanks

 

[ecps92]

Organization | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
it is not just the Weather Service.

Yes they have their own, and have access to the NLECC

I have heard of the NOAA law enforcement agency but am wondering to they have their own radio system or do they share with BLM, NPS, USCG or some other agency?

Thanks

 

[ChrisP]

As Bill pointed out, NOAA and nearly every federal agency has a law enforcement arm. In the case of NOAA, the most visible would be the National Marine Fisheries Service. They have armed officers that are out enforcing fishing laws. I have run across several running operations on roadside fish sellers on the east coast.

They have access to the Customs National Law Enforcement Communications Center (NLECC) in Orlando, operated by CBP.

- Chris

 

[SCPD]

As a patch collector who specializes in natural resource and land management agency patches and who worked in the field, I've known of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement for nearly 30 years. This for two reasons, first some of the seasonal employees and volunteers in my programs had served about fishing vessels in Alaska where the job was to count the species caught, which then determined the length of seasons and amount of take. Second, I heard of a Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer who missed the ocean where he grew up and went to work for NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement at a marine sanctuary.

This office extends beyond the National Marine Fisheries Service, but to the National Ocean Service as well. This service, among other duties, manages 14 National Marine Sanctuaries that cover 96 million acres of ocean. Members of the Office of Law Enforcement patrol these sanctuaries, which in some cases such as in Florida, are contiguous to state managed areas of various designations. In these cases the National Ocean Service manages these areas jointly with the states and officers are cross "deputized" and wear a patch that combines the federal and state logo. I have one such patch in my collection.

Some of my ex coworkers and friends are very surprised to see the patches of the National Marine Fisheries Service (for those who haven't worked National Forests and Parks that have anadromous fish habitat), the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement and National Oceans Service's

 

[WX4JCW]

we took a tour of the NLECC when it first opened it was pretty cool

 

[W8RMH]

I'll be 62 and I never knew of a NOAA LE service, thank's for the education. I just figured the USCG kinda covered that ocean stuff. I guess had I lived in a coastal area I would have been more exposed to these issues.

 

[SCPD]

As a patch collector who specializes in natural resource and land management agency patches and who worked in the field, I've known of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement for nearly 30 years. This for two reasons, first some of the seasonal employees and volunteers in my programs had served about fishing vessels in Alaska where the job was to count the species caught, which then determined the length of seasons and amount of take. Second, I heard of a Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer who missed the ocean where he grew up and went to work for NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement at a marine sanctuary.

This office extends beyond the National Marine Fisheries Service, but to the National Ocean Service as well. This service, among other duties, manages 14 National Marine Sanctuaries that cover 96 million acres of ocean. Members of the Office of Law Enforcement patrol these sanctuaries, which in some cases such as in Florida, are contiguous to state managed areas of various designations. In these cases the National Ocean Service manages these areas jointly with the states and officers are cross "deputized" and wear a patch that combines the federal and state logo. I have one such patch in my collection.

Some of my ex coworkers and friends are very surprised to see the patches of the National Marine Fisheries Service (for those who haven't worked National Forests and Parks that have anadromous fish habitat), the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement and National Oceans Service's

I meant to say that some seasonals and volunteers had served "aboard" some fishing vessels, not "about" some fishing vessels. The edit window closed by the time I noticed.

 

[ecps92]

I can imagine it has change/expanded with now handling the other agencies
Yes, a rather interesting Place/Location

we took a tour of the NLECC when it first opened it was pretty cool

 

[SCPD]

I've attached a picture of my primary natural resource/land management agencies patch collection display. The patches for the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA Office of Law Enforcement and a National Ocean Service Marine Sanctuary/Florida State joint management area are in the second row and start just right of center. I thought this would be of interest to the readers of this thread.

P.S. The bottom of the two patches on the far right of the second row is a patch from the CCC, the original federal "New Deal" agency called the Civilian Conservation Corps. It is made from wool flannel and not cotton. This is one patch I never expected to come across and I didn't pay that much for it. I did not find it on an exclusively patch collector website, it showed up on eBay and I out auctioned everyone else. On the third row, right of center, right of the California State Park patches is a patch from the California Conservation Corps, a state agency. The state patches are from the states I lived and worked in and I worked directly with most of the agencies represented. At the bottom are Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC) patches from each Geographic Area Coordination Center except for Alaska and Southern. I've stopped collecting due to a lack of funds and the remainder of the patches I'm interested are the most expensive of what I would like to obtain.

I don't know why two images posted. I don't know how to correct it.

 

[sflmonitor]

I have heard of the NOAA law enforcement agency but am wondering to they have their own radio system or do they share with BLM, NPS, USCG or some other agency?

Thanks

As ChrisP mentioned, they have access to the CBP NLECC in Orlando, Florida. Many of the smaller federal law enforcement are paid subscribers to the NLECC. Its cheaper to do so than to try to build a repeater network with dispatcher capabilities. While I have no specific information on this particular agency's radio setup, many of these subscriber agencies don't actually have their own "radio system" per say. My experience with other smaller federal agencies has been that they have and use the NLECC repeaters for records checks, OTAR, etc. and have one or more simplex frequencies (that are agency specific) for tactical/surveillance use.

 

[SCPD]

Found an article about NLEEC in the Border Patrol's monthly magazine. See page 8.

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/frontline_vol3_issue1.pdf

 

[spacellamaman]

very cool

Thanks for posting the pic of your collection, i smiled real big when i saw the MAFFS patch ("what's that doing there? oh yeah. fires...in the forest...whew, i am running slow today" me thinks to me-self)

even without the ones you have yet to acquire that is a impressive spread for such a niche' inside a niche' area of collecting

 

[SCPD]

Thanks for posting the pic of your collection, i smiled real big when i saw the MAFFS patch ("what's that doing there? oh yeah. fires...in the forest...whew, i am running slow today" me thinks to me-self)

even without the ones you have yet to acquire that is a impressive spread for such a niche' inside a niche' area of collecting

Sorry that the photo is of such poor resolution. I took it standing below the bulletin board that is mounted to the wall. I didn't use a tripod. I took the picture to make sure I knew how to position the patches on the board in case I had to remove them all to move. It took me quite a while to work out the configuration to fit in as many patches as possible.

I have a hotshot crew patch from each of the four federal agencies that sponsor these crews, the U.S. Forest Service (they have the most), the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service. The NPS has only two hotshot crews, one at Rocky Mountain National Park and the other at Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks. I didn't start collecting until after retirement. Had I started at the beginning of my career I would have had more chance to trade, although, at the time, I did not have enough uniform shirts to get patches off of. I think I may have even thrown out shirts with patches once I wore them out. When I retired I had ten short sleeve and ten long sleeve shirts, plus a variety of coats, jackets, sweaters and hats. I've since worn out all the shirts I used at work shirts for yard work and car maintenance. I kept most of what I had because over the course of my career the uniform allowance came up $1000 short of what I paid to maintain it.

The one patch that seems more valuable to me than the rest, second to the CCC patch, is the black/orange over white Forest Service patch. It is the patch worn by all "snow rangers," who worked for the U.S. Forest Service at major ski resorts located on National Forest lands. They were the only people allowed to load and shoot avalanche artillery for a few decades and were involved in every aspect of the operations in an oversight/inspector type role. Today the picture is far different and the on the ground presence is nearly non-existence, kind of like the rest of the agency. Even though the total number of employees in the agency has not dropped since I retired about 15 years ago, the number of employees at the ranger district level on the district I retired is less than half of what it was when I retired. The number of vacant positions at any one time has risen as many fire and law enforcement employees get their training/certifications in the USFS and then transfer to state and local agencies where the pay is better.