I thought you would find the article Anchored boats must mind new buffer from St Augustine Record to be of interest.

Near the bottom is this:

quote:

Verbal warnings will be issued for a few days, then tickets will be written. Enforcement may come through either the Coast Guard or from Florida Marine Patrol or Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers. Members of the local Coast Guard Auxiliary can also issue citations. Boaters could be fined $75.

Unless the paper screwed up (not unheard of) and got it wrong, then someone has definitely crossed the line and broken the no Direct LE prohibition.

You have to wonder that when word of this gets out (if it is true), how many boaters are going to be willing to have a VSC done on their boats and risk a possible citation from the Aux.

I found this article using Google search:

http://www.staugustine.com/stories/112598/odd_rescue.shtml

The incident took place about 10 years ago according to this:

http://bridgepros.com/projects/312bridge/312constr.photos.htm

The citation incident must be fairly old as Lt. Pickett retired in 2002 while still at the Jacksonville Marine Safety Office.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TybeeBM1,

This appears at the top of the story: "latest update: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 11:05 PM EDT".

I wonder what they updated if the citation part is several years old.

Even being several years old you have to wonder:

1. Are they still doing it?
2. Who authorized it and why?
3. Who ended it, why and when? - if it was ended

There was a rumor that came out of N-Train several years ago that the Aux was going to start issuing the boat equivalent of vehicular non-moving violations (parking tickets). However that rumor was quicly crushed - maybe someone did not get the word at the time.

In Palm Beach County the civilian volunteers of the town police and county sheriff Civilian Motor Patrol (CMP) issue non-moving tickets, so there is precedent for unsworn civilians doing this sort of thing. But the Aux still has that No Direct LE prohibition on the books.

I'm fairly confident that the newspaper messed up.

I think that the press may have been confused as it appears to be an Auxiliary Facility along with an Auxiliarist in the photo. I think that the Auxiliary is only used as a boarding platform during these operations. On second thought, I am not sure if that is an Auxiliary facility as the MSOs had some boats similiar to the one in the photo.