BIA head hopes "community policing" cuts rez crime

By Carson Walker, The Associated Press | Thursday, September 04, 2008

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Besides adding officers to Native American reservations plagued by crime, a concept called community policing promises to give people ownership of those areas, according to Pat Ragsdale, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The approach already is working on Standing Rock Indian Reservation and could help ease some of the ills on the Pine Ridge reservation, he said.

In June, the BIA brought in extra officers to Standing Rock, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. Arrests shot up to 700 in the first month and dropped to 300 in the second month of the surge that now is slated to run at least until October, the agency said.

The idea is that law enforcement collaborates with people in education, health care, social work, the judicial system and other agencies about public safety issues, Ragsdale said.

"Being proactive in the community, having personal relationships with the law-abiding citizens and aggressively going after the offenders," he said.

"We're not going to arrest ourselves out of the overwhelming poverty and unemployment we have on reservations. But we should be able to create a measure of tranquility that people can build on."

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder and other tribal officials have said the law enforcement surge has helped reduce crime. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., earlier said the increase in law enforcement has shut down gang activity on the reservation.

As Senate Indian Affairs Committee chairman, he introduced the Tribal Law and Order Act, which was supported by members of both parties. One of its goals is to improve coordination between law enforcement agencies.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., co-sponsored the bill. He said many Indians are distrustful of the federal government but that trust can be earned if law enforcement officers get out into the communities and show they're there to help.

The crime rate on some reservations is 10-20 times higher than it is outside of Indian Country and on average, 40 percent of the women will be raped during their lifetime, he said.

"These are just stunning statistics that people around the country would really blush at if they knew that was happening somewhere in our country," Thune said.

The BIA also sent in about 25 officers from other states to Pine Ridge after an Aug. 12 confrontation between some tribal police officers and council members, which prompted several officers to resign.

That surge is expected to last a month and then BIA will decide whether to allow the Oglala Sioux Tribe to continue handling law enforcement or if the BIA will take it over, Ragsdale said.

Community policing could work on Pine Ridge if there's support from tribal leaders, he said.

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs is typically being blamed for every dirty rotten thing that ever happened to the American Indian, but most of us come from Indian communities," Ragsdale said.

"Most of us believe firmly in self-determination and bettering our community. So after you get through the resentment that exists, on a person-to-person level we work very well with our tribal constituents. My observation is Standing Rock and Pine Ridge, when we've been there on the citizen level, our relationships are very good."

Oglala Sioux Tribe Police Chief Joe Herman and President John Yellow Bird Steele did not return calls seeking comment.

Thune said another concept that could help reservations is the so-called "broken windows theory" in which people take more ownership for the area around them.

"If you start breaking windows and you don't fix them, then it leads to more things because then it just kind of becomes accepted that this is the culture. Once you start attacking those small acts of crime, those small acts of violence, whether it's vandalism or whatever, and people realize you're serious, it prevents an escalation to some of these more serious types of crime," Thune said.