Staffing crisis is one of biggest battles for conservation police BETTER START MOVING ... Staffing crisis is one of biggest battles for conservation police BETTER START MOVING ...

Ihave been checked by a conservation police officer three times inmy adult life in Illinois. In a half dozen fishing trips to Wisconsinthis year alone, I have been checked twice. And the Illinois crisisin CPO staffing just gets worse.

When the state budget was hammered out this summer, funding for 25additional CPOs had been chipped away. We are in a crisis.

In a chat this week with Larry Closson, director of the Office ofLaw Enforcement, I asked whether the Illinois DNR had consideredgoing to the state police for help in staffing, similar to whattroubled municipalities such as Cicero have done.

Closson, who has headed the conservation police for 21 years,didn't …