AZGFD Hosts CRLEA Annual Conference

This year’s annual Colorado River Law Enforcement Association (CRLEA) conference was held recently in Laughlin, Nev., and hosted by the Arizona Game And Fish Department.

For those who are not familiar with CRLEA, it is an association of local, state, and federal law enforcement officials and their civilian counterparts from states bordering the Colorado River (Arizona, California , Nevada, and Utah). These officials work to reduce accidents that result in boating fatalities, injuries, and property damage to improve boating safety through fostering interstate cooperation, uniform boating laws, and education.

The conference was geared toward public safety and watercraft law enforcement along the Colorado River. Preliminary agenda items included state reports, news from agency leaders, reports from the U.S. Coast Guard, National Park Service, and National Safe Boating Council, and an equipment-failure fatality review.

Presentations included tactical uses of thermal imaging in marine-law enforcement, a boarding-contact model, victim-rights resources, cold-water boot camp, marine-grant opportunities, and advances and trends in operating under-the-influence prosecutions.

Agencies and organizations in attendance included Arizona Game And Fish Department, Nevada Department of Wildlife, United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Utah State Parks, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Lake Havasu Police Department, La Paz County Sheriff’s Department, and many others.