Law and order on the water

Armed with plenty of sunscreen and water, two state conservation officers left a dock near Hales Ford Bridge for a routine six-hour Saturday shift in July on Smith Mountain Lake. Another patrol boat left from a dock near Penhook.

The weather was sunny at noon when the 24 1⁄2-foot Bryant bowrider left, but soon dark clouds rolled overhead.

“These storms brew up fast and then spread out,” said senior conservation officer Frank Neighbors, 57, as he looked up at the sky. He’s a 25-year veteran of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. His partner for the day, Sgt. Bryan Young, 36, has been working for the department for 15 years. Young and Neighbors were able to avoid the rain that day and get to work patrolling the lake.

“We look at it like a city on the water,” Young said of Smith Mountain Lake, which has 500 miles of shoreline spanning three counties. “The majority of your traffic is on the main channels.”

High-traffic areas include Bridgewater Plaza, Jake’s Place on the Bedford side of Hales Ford Bridge and the SML State Park in Huddleston. But it’s also important to patrol the coves and neighborhoods on the lake, Young said. “You can’t neglect the areas that are not as busy.”

The officers’ primary focus is boating and fishing enforcement, because that’s the department’s main source of funding — fishing licenses and boat registrations.

“We don’t do random boat stops,” Young said. “Our policy is, we don’t do it.”

The law does, however, allow officers to stop watercraft at random.

“What we look for is registration issues, and that’s how we actually make our boat stops,” said Young.

Other times, boaters are stopped when officers see them breaking boating laws, including reckless driving, underage operation of a watercraft or riding personal watercraft after dark. Anglers also are stopped sometimes so officers can check for licenses.

At 12:43 p.m., the boat hit some bumps. Neighbors adjusted his hat, and both officers sat in silence as Young steered the boat down the lake.

When Young slowed down, Neighbors looked out across the lake through binoculars. He watched carefully as operators pulled into no-wake zones marked by buoys, typically in congested areas or neighborhoods. Young said boaters should be at the lowest speed possible while maintaining steering and motion of the boat in no-wake zones.

As the officers drove by boats and docks, people waved at them. They waved back.

Boating safety has become a priority for lake residents, particularly in the years after a Moneta couple and their dog were killed in a 2005 boating accident. The retired couple’s boat was struck from behind by a local boater who was speeding and operating the boat under the influence.

In 2007, the state passed mandatory boater education laws, which have been phased in and will be complete by 2016. The law requires all motorboat and PWC operators to complete a boating safety education course and carry a completion card with them when operating a boat or PWC.

The current law requires all operators between the ages of 14 and 40 to take the course. Next July, the law applies to all operators between the ages of 14 and 45. Young said SML and Chesapeake Bay lead the state in boating accidents.

“A lot of that is because of the population increase,” Young said. But in the past 20 years, the number of boating accidents has declined. “And the boater education plays a lot into that,” he said.“The locals don’t tolerate it like they used to,” he said. “They want the law-enforcement presence there.”

About 15 officers rotate schedules, working days and nights and all but one weekend a month. Young said conservation police at other locations might only be busy during hunting season.

“Here we’re literally working it every day, especially between Memorial Day and Labor Day,” he said.

Young describes the law enforcement presence on the lake as firm but fair.

“The officers themselves can only do so much on the water. We’d rather do it in the classroom,” he said. “Once they get out on the lake, it’s too late at that point.”

During the shift, the officers stopped eight watercraft, including six PWCs. They made three arrests — two for underage operation of a watercraft and one for an unserviceable fire extinguisher. They gave warnings for speeding in a no-wake zone, failing to display proof of boater education, life jacket violations and one for a faded decal.

“The biggest thing we are seeing are safety equipment violations,” Young said.

Anytime a boat is stopped, Young and Neighbors checked for, among other safety requirements, a working fire extinguisher, life preserver on deck and if there are enough life jackets for everyone on board.

“It’s imperative that people check the condition of their equipment,” Young said.

“You’ll find a number of people out here who’ve never checked their fire extinguisher and don’t know how.”

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