A crime scene in Indian Country. Photo from FBI
Walt Lamar, a former head of law enforcement at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, discusses ways to address crime in Indian Country:
The Indian Law and Order Commission's report, A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer bluntly described systemic public safety problems and the resulting devastation in Indian Country, especially for children. After the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing (February 2014) regarding ILOC's report, headlines blared the terrible news about crime, violence, substance abuse and sexual assault in Indian Country. What many articles overlooked in the sensational statistics was testimony that pointed to the effectiveness of solutions proposed by the committee, promising approaches already being effected by tribal communities, and the need for Congress to allocate stable public safety funding for tribes. Rather than promising Congressional action, discussion about the prepared testimony focused on how agencies could support community-based, collaborative solutions, widely touted as the best approach. Timothy Purdon, U.S. Attorney for North Dakota, spoke to the success of the Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who work closely with the tribes to determine jurisdiction and increase successful prosecutions. "Bringing those two forces together, it helps get convictions but it also increases the communication and the collaboration and the idea, we really become then more community prosecutors, [we] become part of that community." During later questioning, he described federal support for tribal community groups to support reentry, for tribes to develop cross-deputization agreements for law enforcement, or MOUs with states to support referral to tribal juvenile courts.Get the Story:
Walt Lamar: The Good News Behind the Bad News About Crime and Violence in Indian Country (Indian Country Today 12/18) Indian Law and Order Commission Report:
A Roadmap For Making Native America Safer (November 2013)
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