Rhode Island’s state environmental police force has been troubled by vacancies for at least 20 years.
But not for much longer. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Division of Law Enforcement is poised to reach its full 32-person staff for the first time since Deputy Chief Mike Schipritt began working there in 2005.
Schipritt, who was promoted to deputy chief in 2024, will get a break from the endless hiring paperwork. More importantly, he won’t have to struggle so much over how to deploy critical environmental guardians across the sprawling landscape of state-owned land and waters.
“Life safety will always take precedence,” Schipritt, 46, said. “When we’re down to two or three officers working a night shift, I can’t staff two boats on patrol. Or, we might have to sacrifice staffing a boating ramp during the day, watching fishermen.”
It’s mostly thanks to better retirement benefits extended to state public safety workers under the state’s fiscal 2025 budget. The state has also eased degree requirements and increased pay for its environmental police division in recent years.
Recruitment efforts took a dive in 2020 as public perception of law enforcement dimmed. Schipritt struggled to recruit and retain environmental officers while other local police departments offered better retirement packages, and game wardens in other states earned higher salaries.
When we’re down to two or three officers working a night shift, I can’t staff two boats on patrol. Or, we might have to sacrifice staffing a boating ramp during the day watching fishermen.
As of Jan. 1, more than 340 state public safety workers within the state pension system, including those with DEM, Rhode Island Capitol Police and campus police officers, can now receive the same benefits as municipal police and firefighters under changes enacted by the Rhode Island General Assembly as part of the state spending plan.
The pension reforms, including a lower retirement age and higher retirement allowance, partially reverse the 2012 pension cuts led by then-General Treasurer Gina Raimondo. To account for the estimated $17 million increase in accrued liability, the state is expected to put $3.8 million more per year into the pension system for the next 20 years, Wil Arboleda, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Office of the General Treasurer, said.
“That number is — however — an estimate, particularly as it relates to out-years and will fluctuate based on factors like salary increases, inflation, and system experience,” Arboleda said in an email.
The state’s pension fund for state employees faced a $2.1 billion unfunded liability as of June 30, 2024, according to a Dec. 19 actuarial report by national consulting firm Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company. The fiscal 2025 budget included a $222 million payment to the state employee pension fund, expected to rise to $243.3 million in fiscal 2026.
The pension costs are a small price to pay, says Michael Woods, chair of the New England chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. Woods advocated for the pension changes for environmental police during the 2024 legislative session, stressing the importance of more competitive benefits to protect state lands and waters.
“This is our first line of defense against wildlife and environmental violators,” Woods said in a recent interview. “They are the ones out in the field, catching people who abuse public resources.”
Big job in a small state
The DEM police provide 24/7 patrols and protection for state waters and parks, enforcing environmental protections, public safety and regulations governing marine activity and commercial and recreational fishing and wildlife. More than 66,000 hunting and fishing licenses and permits are sold in-state each year, according to DEM’s website. And across the 40,000 acres of state-owned land, environmental police are charged with stopping criminal activity such as vandalism, larceny, assault and motor vehicle violations.
When a small passenger plane missed its landing, crashing into waters off Quonset Point in North Kingstown in March 2024, DEM police were first on the scene, quickly deploying four of its marine officers based out of nearby Wickford, according to news reports. The DEM officers pulled the man and woman in the plane crash from the water; they were subsequently taken by local police and fire crews to a local hospital.
It’s hardly the Ranger Rick or Smokey Bear fantasy many imagine when they think of division, said Schipritt.
“We break up domestic fights, criminal activities, everything like actual police,” he said.
And yet, “It’s not uncommon to hear, ‘Oh, you’re not a real cop, you can’t arrest me.’”
This is our first line of defense against wildlife and environmental violators. They are the ones out in the field, catching people who abuse public resources.
Misunderstanding of the duties of DEM’s law enforcement division plagued recruitment efforts too, with many potential recruits not realizing that the job required a bachelor’s degree in an environmental field.
“A lot of people who wanted to be environmental police didn’t realize what our degree requirements were,” Schipritt said. “They would get a criminal justice degree, then find out they couldn’t apply.”
He added, “The people we were able to hire were fantastic candidates, but the pool was very limited.”
Retirements and resignations worsened the shortage; the division has advertised to fill open officer positions 20 times in the last five years, Schipritt said.
Two years ago, the state agreed to the agency’s request to ease degree requirements for entry-level environmental police officers, accepting a bachelor’s degree in either environmental field or criminal justice. At the same time, reclassifications approved in 2023 boosted starting salary ranges for environmental police officers by up to 20%, from a $61,460 to $70,983 initial offer, to a range of $73,517 to $82,725.
‘Now it makes sense to stay’
Money and retirement benefits weren’t what attracted 26-year-old Lucas Walter to a job with DEM’s law enforcement division. The University of Rhode Island graduate and Army National Guard officer always wanted a career that would let him spend time outdoors. He decided to follow in the footsteps of both his forestry major parents as a state environmental police officer.
But the boost to retirement and salary make Walter more apt to make his career at DEM a permanent one.
“Before, the benefits plan was pretty weak,” Walter said. “Now it makes sense to stay in this job for the long term and do the whole stint with the pension and everything.”
Walter joined the U.S. Army to ensure he had a way to pay for his college education. Walter graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in conservation biology, after which he completed his training with the state’s municipal police academy. He’s still a member of the Army National Guard.
Walter is expected to complete his training in the next month, at which time his conditional hiring with state environmental police will become permanent — something both Walter and Schipritt are eagerly anticipating.
Schipritt relishes his job for the balance between fast-paced police work and the tranquility of time in nature.
“The police side is exciting, but when you get sick of that, you take the boat out or the ATV out to go check on the hunters,” said Schipritt.
His favorite work post is Point Judith. The so-called “Calamari Capital” of the East Coast makes the southern Rhode Island landing area a popular spot for commercial fishermen, and for environmental police to check their landings.
Lucas also said working with commercial fishermen is one of his favorite parts of the job so far.
“With the amount of money involved, it’s a big deal, so you can really make a difference if someone is doing something wrong,” he said of policing the fishing industry.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
