Objective

To determine if the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (Parks) is adequately monitoring and enforcing requirements to ensure boaters’ safety and quality of life on State waters in accordance with New York State Navigation Law (Navigation Law). The audit covered the period from January 1, 2017 through October 31, 2019.

About the Program

With its vast network of waterways, including about 70,000 miles of rivers and 7,600 freshwater lakes and ponds, New York State is rich with opportunities for motorized water recreation. The New York State Navigation Law outlines rules for boating and watercraft recreation, including safety and quality-of-life components. For­­ example, the Navigation Law imposes restrictions on engine noise, establishes requirements for on-board safety equipment, and requires all motorized boat operators to pass a State-approved boating safety course. Enforcement of the Navigation Law is a collaborative effort among various entities, including Parks, Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of State Police, and local law enforcement (e.g., counties and municipalities), with Parks having primary oversight and enforcement responsibilities. All entities that enforce the Navigation Law on State waters are required to submit Navigation Activity Reports (Activity Reports) to Parks annually as a condition of receiving State Aid or using leased equipment. Parks compiles data from these Activity Reports and well other sources, such as boating accident reports from local law enforcement and Department of Motor Vehicles registration reports, as the basis for its annual New York State Boating Recreational Report (Boating Report), a detailed analysis identifying law enforcement activity, boating accidents, fatalities, and injuries by waterway for the year. In tandem with data from past years, Parks uses the information to better understand and prevent recreational boating accidents and inform the public about recreational boating activity in the State.

Key Findings

We found Parks has developed and implemented controls to adequately monitor and enforce requirements for safety and quality of life on State waters in accordance with the Navigation Law. However, we identified several aspects of Parks’ oversight that could be strengthened to maximize the efficiency of State marine law enforcement resources and improve its ability to assess boating safety risks and proactively mitigate them. For example:

• Parks does not have a structured process for communicating and coordinating patrol activities across law enforcement entities, such as county sheriff’s offices, with overlapping jurisdictions. Consequently, certain waterways may be overpatrolled – unnecessarily expending valuable State resources – and other areas inadequately covered.
• Parks does not verify Activity Report data submitted by local law enforcement, nor does it ensure that all entities consistently submit Activity Reports. With incomplete and/or inaccurate information, the Boating Report may be less useful or misleading to the public regarding safety on the State’s waterways, and may distort Parks’ ability to reliably assess accident data and develop preventive measures.

Key Recommendations

• Develop a structured process for coordinating marine law enforcement activity across entities with shared waterway jurisdictions.
• Develop processes to improve the accuracy and completeness of Activity Reports.