The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) announced that Senior Officer Tim Dooley has been named the 2016 Conservation Police Officer of the Year.
Senior Officer Dooley’s dedication to protecting the Commonwealth’s wildlife resources, his participation in community outreach, and his commitment to education and instruction made him the top candidate for the award.
“Senior Officer Dooley has established himself as a leader within the Law Enforcement Division in the area of wildlife investigations. He has worked diligently to increase his knowledge and skills in the use of technology to not only discover wildlife violations, but to effectively gather many forms of evidence to successfully prosecute the offenders. His passion for this line of work is obvious, and the agency and the Commonwealth are fortunate to have him as a conservation police officer,” said Major Scott Naff, Law Enforcement Assistant Chief of Operations for DWR.
Throughout 2016, Senior Officer Dooley led his District in arrests and violations detected–as he has for the last nine years. The range of violations spanned everything from illegal deer hunting on public school property, to 28 separate investigations of illegal harvest of turkeys, and possession of controlled substances. When checking out suspicious activity at a fishing lake in Albemarle County, Dooley found two men in possession of marijuana-laced “gummy” candies, which was the first known seizure of this type of edible marijuana in the county.
Officer Dooley is a veteran officer with 9 years of dedicated service. He serves the DWR Law Enforcement Division as a Field Training Officer, a Driver Training Instructor, a Cell Phone Technology and Forensic Data Analyst, and a Background Investigator. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Sciences.
Officer Dooley attended the DWR Basic Law Academy in 2008, where he earned the Colonel’s Award for Top Academic Achievement, as well as the Outstanding Driver Award for overall highest driver training qualification scores.