Compliance Checks

Compliance checks are informal contacts with hunters and anglers in the field providing customers  with assurance that laws and regulations established by the South Dakota Legislature and Game, Fish and Parks Commission are being followed. Compliance checks provide a critically important deterrent to anyone who might consider violating the wildlife laws of the state. 

Conservation officers are allowed to go onto private land to conduct compliance checks in "open fields" only when they have visible evidence that hunting or fishing is actually occurring.

Without the ability to make personal contact with a hunter or angler in the field, it would be all but impossible for a conservation officer to know if that person had the proper license, was abiding by the bag limits, or was adhering to the numerous other restrictions enacted to protect and manage wildlife on behalf of the citizens of our state.

Conservation officers are charged with enforcing the laws and regulations enacted by the people, including conducting inspections of those being regulated. Without the ability to make contact with hunters, anglers or trappers, whether they’re on public or private land, it would be impossible for conservation officers to do the job they were hired to do.