Captain Otterstedt of DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement briefed the Council on the Division’s new Five Year Plan. The objective of the Five Year Plan is to improve service to the public by assigning officers wider geographical patrol areas. This will improve the response time to civilian complaints and allow for more pro-active patrols. There will be no increase in staffing beyond the 300 officers already employed despite increasing responsibilities to enforce new environmental and conservation regulations. Conservation officers upstate will be trained in the handling of hazardous materials, but not on Long Island because both Suffolk and Nassau Counties already have sophisticated haz-mat teams. Officers will also be formed into MORE teams (Marine Off Road Enforcement) to patrol near large bodies of water. In answer to a question, Captain Otterstedt stated that there had been a significant increase in enforcement activity in recent years. No enforcement reports have been published in the last six months only because he lost his support staff. In response to Mr. Colvin’s questions about enforcement implications of new regulations in the different regions, Captain Otterstedt stated that enforcement officers are striving to spend more time out on the water. Westchester County has chronic difficulty in maintaining staffing levels. Chairman Wise requested that the final version of the Division of Law Enforcement’s Five Year Plan be made available to the Council.