O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 27-1-18 (2019)

Powers of game wardens generally

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) Game wardens shall have the power and authority: (1) To enforce all state laws on all property owned or controlled by the department; (2) To enforce all state laws pertaining to functions assigned to the department; (3) To enforce any state law when the violation of that law is committed in conjunction with a violation of a state law pertaining to functions assigned to the department; (4) To enforce any state law when ordered to do so by the Governor or to protect any life or property when the circumstances demand action; and

(5) At the expense of the department, to assist the Department of Public Safety and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in carrying out their duties and responsibilities when requested to do so by the Department of Public Safety or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

(b) The commissioner may, and in the case of a request by the Governor shall, authorize and direct the department's game wardens to cooperate with and render assistance to any law enforcement agency of this state or any municipality, county, or other political subdivision thereof in any criminal case, in the prevention or detection of violations of any law, or in the apprehension or arrest of persons who violate the criminal laws of this state, any other state, or the United States, upon a request by the governing authority or chief law enforcement officer of any municipality, the sheriff of any county, a judge of the superior court of any county, or the Governor.

History

(Ga. L. 1973, p. 1483, § 3; Code 1933, § 45-118, enacted by Ga. L. 1977, p. 396, § 1; Ga. L. 1978, p. 816, § 11; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 27; Ga. L. 1990, p. 376, § 1; Ga. L. 2019, p. 808, § 7/SB 72.)

Annotations

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, substituted "Game wardens" for "Conservation rangers" in the introductory language of subsection (a) and substituted "game wardens" for "conservation rangers" in subsection (b).

Cross references. - Authority of conservation rangers to inspect coastal marshland to ascertain whether laws pertaining to protection of such areas are being observed, § 12-5-286.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

C.J.S. - 36A C.J.S., Fish, §§ 29, 30.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1998–2020 · leading case: Thornton v. State, 851 S.E.2d 564 (Ga. 2020).
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Thornton v. State, 851 S.E.2d 564 (Ga. 2020). · cites it 10× “In addition, game wardens are expressly authorized “[t]o enforce all state laws on property owned or controlled by [DNR,]” OCGA § 27-1-18 (a) (1); “[t]o enforce any state law when the violation of that law is committed in conjunction with a violation of a state law pertaining to…”
Dowis v. State, 501 S.E.2d 275 (Ga. Ct. App. 1998). · cites it 2× “) See also OCGA § 27-1-18 (a) (2), (3). The rangers had the requisite knowledge sufficient to warrant a prudent person in believing that Dowis had committed or was committing misdemeanor offenses, by hunting without a license, by hunting big game without a license and by hunting…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.