The US Fish and Wildlife Service has both public safety and law enforcement responsibilities. We execute these responsibilities through the Office of Law Enforcement, and the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The National Wildlife Refuge System has Law enforcement responsibilities over roughly 95 million acres of public land and employs about 400 refuge law enforcement officers, who are geographically deployed across the Refuge System.
The Law Enforcement Officers, in the National Wildlife Refuge System, are responsible for protecting our employees and visitors; safeguarding the public's investment in facilities and equipment; and protecting the integrity of the habitat in furtherance of the Service's conservation mission. Law Enforcement Officers perform a wide variety of law enforcement duties and responsibilities. They conduct patrols, surveillance, short-term investigations, apprehensions, detentions, seizures, and arrests and interact with the judicial system. Officers also deal with a wide variety of crimes, including but not limited to: natural resource violations, traffic violations, crimes against persons, crimes against property, homeland security issues, and alien and drug smuggling. Through memoranda of understanding, the program provides law enforcement assistance to other Federal and local law enforcement agencies. Officers participate in joint routine law enforcement patrol work, investigations, and intelligence.
The Office of Law Enforcement includes 261 special agents and 122 wildlife inspectors, focuses on potentially devastating threats to wildlife resource-illegal trade, unlawful commercial exploitation, habitat destruction, and environmental contaminants. The Office of Law Enforcement investigates wildlife crimes, regulates wildlife trade, helps Americans understand and obey wildlife protections laws, and works in partnership with international, state, and tribal counterparts to conserve wildlife resources. The Office of Law Enforcement employees the following types of positions:
Special Agents, in the Office of Law Enforcement, enforce Federal wildlife protection laws throughout the United States. Special agents are plainclothes criminal investigators with full Federal law enforcement authority. They work in settings that range from major cities to one-person duty stations that cover some of the few remaining wilderness areas left in this country. They investigate wildlife crimes, with an emphasis on preventing the illegal take and sale of federally protected resources, including endangered species, migratory birds, marine mammals, and species of international concern. Agents work with industry, landowners, and local communities to protect wildlife from environmental hazards, promote species recovery, and safeguard habitat. Examples include speed zone enforcement efforts in Florida to protect endangered manatees from boat strikes and partnerships with electric utilities in the West that help reduce the risk of electrocution for eagles and other raptors. Service special agents use traditional investigative approaches to detect wildlife crime; enforcement task forces and patrols to address threats to species that range from manatees to grizzly bears; and proactive enforcement efforts to promote voluntary compliance with U.S. wildlife laws and treaties.
  
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