AbstractIn a survey of 51 state wildlife law enforcement chiefs, 20 of 50 agencies recorded on a standardized form any citizen reports of violations. Ten of these 20 agencies analyzed data recorded on citizen reports for planning purposes. Seven of the 50 respondents indicated that names of enforcement personnel were accompanied by their professional affiliation in local telephone directories. These results suggest that if an observer desires to report a wildlife law violation in the United States, the probabilities of the report's being successfully completed, recorded, and used in enforcement agency planning are low. Providing business telephones with message-taping capability to field officers is suggested for increasing these probabilities. Professional fisheries managers should continue to support adoption of improved techniques related to man-management.