"It's been two years since we publicly lauded the hiring of Dave Crockett to head the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe's Police Department.

Crockett came at a time when the Tribe itself had withdrawn its support of policing in the community - having ended all funding for the badly needed traffic team it helped form.

And he also came at a time when the Tribal Police Department had withdrawn from interagency cooperation with other local departments in less obvious and more subtle ways.

I'm quite certain that Crockett is a fine man and a fine police officer, but nothing has improved.

In fact, things have gotten worse - and not just in the Tribal Police Department, but in the secrecy of Tribal government in general.

This is not a new arena for me, nor for this newspaper.

Going way back, in fact, I met with then-Chief Kevin Chamberlain more than 10 years ago on this very topic.

At the time, rumors about crime on the Reservation and at the casino ran rampant, and facts were few and far between."

Get the Story:
RICK MILLS: Tribe's secrecy should concern community (The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun 10/25)