From the bottom up.
Good question on the TIP website. I’m not sure who is responsible for the maintenance of the website, TIP Inc. or the DNR. Personally I’d rather spend the money on equipment. TIP has given money for equipment purchases in the past and now that I look back on it the items were for the UCIU. I think that’s called hindsight.
True, the MDIP is available at other agencies. Time is everything. Do these sister services, as someone else called them, have this equipment in a fixed position or is it mobile? If it is mobile will the sister service bring it to the site of the enforcement action? Should the CO be forced to take the time to drive to the nearest available machine and lose precious investigatory time? Currently one CO (that I know of) drives two hours to the nearest machine (I think it s a Federal LEA). I see you live in Solon. What if the good people of Solon figured out a way not to have a fire department because Iowa City, Ely, Mount Vernon and Lisbon are just a few minutes away and surely no lives and not much property can be lost in the few minutes it will take them to respond. I know, a very extreme and illegal example. Perhaps a couple of better ones; why keep a fire extinguisher in the house the fire department is only a few minutes away, and my favorite, why keep a gun in the house, the police are just a few minutes away. Time is everything.
I’ll just let the part about being selfish speak for itself. Even though we've never met (have we?) I don’t really think you are like that. But the choice to donate or not is up to each of us.
I could speculate on what happened with your TIP experience but it would be pure conjecture. I’m confident no information is ignored. I wouldn’t enjoy being stopped three times in one weekend. How long did it take? What were the COs doing when they weren’t stopping you? I doubt they were at the donut shop. I would guess they were stopping others looking for violations. You were just in the area where poaching had been reported and they were looking for poachers. Well, that’s the way I’d look at it.
You say, "precious time...investigation"...I guess I didn't realize investigations were time-sensitive...like a fire-call. (BTW, your cop reference and solon don't jive, we're on a county response, no city cops here).
If a poacher in Johnson county is caught and their cell phone has something valuable on it, it can be "quarantined, via legislative channels"...and if it needs to be driven to Des Moines at a later date, then that's just part of doing the job...I think it's called "evidence". It won't expedite anything having a Johnson County CO with the MDIP. Another flawed justification is that usually the DNR officers are NOT acting alone in an arrest situation...which is why I referenced County Sheriffs previously. It could be State Patrol. HEY, who cares what their colors are?, State Patrol and IDNR Officers are all on the same state-tab. I bet they can figure it out, if it's truly an essential piece.
It's not like it's asking the DOT to work with the DNR, I digress.
As for getting stopped three times, I'm going to say it wasn't a matter of coincidentally being in the same area. I'll go out on a limb and predict that the CO knew I wasn't reporting myself for poaching on my dad's land.
As for the information being left behind. YES, it certainly did. The individuals that were doing the poaching then, were never "caught" even after providing plenty of details on where and when to get them by me...and those guys were still up to their no-good ways last year. BUT, I bet if I have them text me a picture of their crimes, they'll finally be apprehended!!!
For what it's worth, I provided the DNR (via TIP) several thousand dollars (according to your math)...but apparently they didn't need the money. THEREFORE, they must not need my $2, that's all I'm saying.