Coasties and Inland Waterways

[Bifflefan]

Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways

This should add a little confusion to the thread.
Copied off the Wikipedia web site.

It basically says that the coasties are police on the water or land if needed.

14 U.S.C. ? 2 authorizes the Coast Guard to enforce federal law. This authority is further defined in 14 U.S.C. ? 89, which gives law enforcement powers to all Coast Guard commissioned officers, warrant officers, and petty officers. Unlike the other branches of the United States Armed Forces, which are prevented from acting in a law enforcement capacity by the Posse Comitatus Act and Department of Defense policy, under 18 U.S.C. ? 1385 the Coast Guard is exempt from and not subject to the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act.
Further law enforcement authority is given by 14 U.S.C. ? 143 and 19 U.S.C. ? 1401, which empower U.S. Coast Guard active and reserve commissioned officers, warrant officers, and petty officers as federal customs officers. This places them under 19 U.S.C. ? 1589a, which grants customs officers general law enforcement authority, including the authority to:
(1) carry a firearm;
(2) execute and serve any order, warrant, subpoena, summons, or other process issued under the authority of the United States;
(3) make an arrest without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in the officer's presence or for a felony, cognizable under the laws of the United States committed outside the officer's presence if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing a felony; and
(4) perform any other law enforcement duty that the Secretary of Homeland Security may designate.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office Report to the House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary on its 2006 Survey of Federal Civilian Law Enforcement Functions and Authorities, identified the U.S. Coast Guard as one of 104 federal components that employed law enforcement officers.[10] The report also included a summary table of the authorities of the U.S. Coast Guard's 192 special agents and 3,780 maritime law enforcement boarding officers.[11]
Coast Guardsmen have the legal authority to carry their service-issued firearms on and off base. This is rarely done in practice, however; at many Coast Guard stations, commanders prefer to have all service-issued weapons in armories. Still, one court has held that Coast Guard boarding officers are qualified law enforcement officers authorized to carry personal firearms off-duty for self-defense

 

[blifsey]

Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways

see my earlier post: The Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation is the agency charged with protecting dams.

Do they cover whole US or just western states?

See http://www.usbr.gov/projects/

 

[Ike-110722]

Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways

About 6 years ago (before I retired ) I went to a seminar where they were telling us all about there dam protection program and I think they only mentioned western dams. But they are a Federal agency so they might have jurisdiction on any Federal dam. good question.

As for the post by Bifflefan.

Not only that, The USCG is authorized to carry the US Mail, because they used to in Alaska. Also in Alaska for many years until it became a state, they were the only state wide law enforcement agency.

In fact the USCG is authorized to enforce ALL Federal laws on the water and on US ships anywhere, and upon request, provide law enforcement assistance to state and local law enforcement (at one point in Katrina they were the only cops in town). There are coasties who are also US Marshals, coasties who work for the DEA undercover, coasties that work as air marshals, and quite a few other roles. But you never hear about this stuff in the press. Good news doesn't sell papers.

There are still USCG personnel guarding harbors in the arabian gulf, and two at Baghram AFB supervising loading of dangerous cargo. (one of the USCG's responsibilities is supervision of dangerous cargo onto ships in US ports.) There were USCG cutters and patrol boats in Vietnam, Grenada, and in the first Gulf War.

And this only the tip of the iceberg. So they do lot more than just rescue recreational boaters and teach boating safety classes.

 

[themaniam1]

Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways

Just want to add some clarification. I am a USCG Aux member. We are volunteer, NO PAY, just reimbursed for fuel using our personal boats and equipment. USCG Aux can patrol on any water way and when on patrol we are Federal, Homeland Security. We are not law enforcement, cannot have any type of firearm on the boat or us while on patrol, but are public safety reminders and search and rescue.

We remind folks of safety, wakeless, speed and proximity and so forth. We provide regatta and safety patrols and cruise around looking for boaters in distress. Where there is no commercial tow service we, we tow for free to the nearest safe port. We always have a way to call the local law in case we see something like a BUI, dangerous behavior or a medical emergency but once again was are there for the public and are not the law. Not all lakes will have USCG Aux and usually only on weekends and holidays which is when most of the boating public is out on the waters.

It cost a great deal of money to have a full time law enforcement out there. The Fish and Game are primarily there to enforce the wild life laws which they know very well. The Rangers are the law enforcement primarily with in the recreation area.

Just an FYI

 

[Ike-110722]

Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways

I forgot to mention the two USCG astronauts Dan Burbank and Bruce Melnick.

Thanks God for the auxuliary. They also do far more than teach classes and do safety checks on boats. Search and rescue, providing platforms to transport regular CG, manning operations centers and providing admin assistance. They are the best bang for the buck the US tax payer gets.

 

[QC]

Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways

This has been an outstanding thread. Answered my questions and added additional understanding. Cool