Only 4 state/county criminal justice personnel in the PL 280 jurisdictions
responded to the question about reasons for the development of cooperative agreements,
and 2 of those (50%) were could not say or were uncertain. Of the remaining 2
respondents, 1 (25%) indicated that the reason was greater authority and involvement of
tribal police, and the other (25%) emphasized enhanced services. As 1 respondent
indicated, “I said [a deputization agreement is] a good solution …
because it really is a
help to the sheriff to have the tribal police presence out there.”
395
51 Respondent is from a jurisdiction that has a law enforcement services agreement.
This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not
been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
What Are the Benefits from Cooperative Agreements?
We asked respondents in PL 280 jurisdictions that had cooperative law
enforcement agreements: What are the benefits from those agreements? There were 81
responses from reservation residents, and 12 from state/county law enforcement officers.
Only 1 state/county criminal justice official responded to this question.
Among reservation residents, the largest number,
30 (37%), emphasized enhanced
law enforcement services as the greatest benefit. These responses included greater access
to officers, better and faster response to calls for service, higher standards for tribal
police, and people feeling safer within their communities. Fourteen (17%) said the major
benefit was greater respect and sovereignty for the tribe and its police. Respondents who
emphasized this benefit mentioned greater control over nonmembers; the capacity to
enforce state law through tribal, rather than state, police; equality of tribal and county
officers; and greater respect for tribal authority. Another 14 reservation-resident
respondents (17%) indicated that the major benefit was more effective coordination and
better relations between tribal and county police departments. These respondents stressed
the value of better communication and the two departments working together. Five
reservation-resident respondents (6%) focused on the benefits from closing jurisdictional
gaps and overcoming jurisdictional uncertainties as the primary benefit. Three reservation
residents (4%) viewed greater cultural understanding and sensitivity by law enforcement
as the main benefit from the cooperative agreement. Eight reservation-resident
respondents (10%) answered that resource gains were the major benefit from the
agreement. These answers stressed that law enforcement services agreements were less
costly than a separate tribal force, new resources could be brought into the system
through deputization agreements, and sharing of resources between tribal and county
departments was more efficient. Five respondents (6%) could find no benefits from the
agreement, and another 2 (3%) were unsure or could not say. Thus, the vast majority of
reservation respondents (91%) found some benefit from the agreements, with the largest
being enhanced police services to the community, a benefit disproportionately found in
the communities with law enforcement services agreements.
Illustrative statements from reservation residents are the following:
Then, I think, the long-term value from what I can see is that, by
having that in place, that now it just gets renewed year after year
pretty much as it’s. We haven’t had any new things added,
and that
was almost, like, the beginning of creating a good relationship, and
then over time you have that trust and you have a knowledge of each
other, and it helps to just have a better relationship that you can fall
back on if something comes up.
396
This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not
been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Certainly the tribe would have seen (the benefit) as the officer
having authority to deal with the situation completely and not have
to determine whether they, in fact, have the authority of taking the
person and dealing with them at a particular location.
I think you can just provide better service if everybody is working
together.
[I]f there was ever a large-scale emergency here … our law
enforcement will integrate with federal and state authorities in a
workable manner that would utilize the local knowledge and talent of
our area, as well a the skills of the people under them, so that if we
had to mobilize for a large-scale disaster, such as a flood, wildlife fire,
toxic material spill, that they would have the best people on point in
key positions on site here.
We’re not at the mercy of non-Indians. It required both tribal people
and non-Indian people to learn more about each other. … It used to
be at school, if money was missing, it must have been an Indian. I
don’t think there’s so much suspicion anymore. I think that was
alleviated.
[T]o us, it means that we have better response time. It means that
our officers aren’t — it means that there’s a blend, and you don’t
come to a wall and stop on investigations. Often if you do a stop on
a highway for speeding, there may be other things involved: drugs,
alcohol. And if that was the case, then we’d be sort of stalled out
and spending a lot of time trying to do a follow-up on anything.
Whereas now our officers making the stop, who are cross-deputized,
can follow through with the whole stop. So, there’s continuity. If
we didn’t have that, we’d be hard-pressed to maintain continuity.
Obviously one of them is the more rapid response time and having
officers who understand this community better …. I think it just
made us a more professional department, and in dealing with a lot of
the problems here, and we don’t only get calls from tribal people, we
get calls from all people that live here, whether it’s Indian, nonIndian, or whatever.
I think it’s just helped us on a whole become a
lot better department.
Well, again, I think that it can add to the overall staff level for the
county. I think that, for tribal youth, it has the presence in that
397
This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not
been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
community. It would possibly give the youth some Indian people to
look up to as sort of mentors, and, you know, possibly try and take
the right road.
Of the 12 state/county law enforcement respondents from PL 280 jurisdictions, 7
(58%) viewed the main benefit from cooperative agreements as enhanced services to
tribal communities, including faster response, reduced crime, and greater officer
presence). Two others (17%) emphasized greater clarity about jurisdiction and
responsibilities, and another 2 (17%) saw the main advantage as the ability to share
resources.
One (8%) emphasized the value of equality in the response that people get
from both county and tribal police.
Illustrative comments from the state/county law enforcement officers are as
follows:
[T]hey get a fantastic service and … we get to provide that which is
a benefit to the county and the agency (from a reservation with a law
enforcement services contract).
Again, just to let everybody know in case department heads, or
somebody else, changes, at least there’s something in writing that
lets everybody know, yes, we should be doing this or shouldn’t be
doing this …. It helps with turf battles and those kinds of things.
[I]t enhances our department, too, because we can, I mean, we’re
putting on four people in (the county). You know, the faster
response to services for the Native people there, I mean everybody,
not only Natives there, but the non-Natives that live in that
community. It’s been a big plus.
I think there’s a potential for sharing resources, training, and just a
better knowledge of each other’s departments and skills that we can
better use our resources of bringing down the crime rate of (the
county).
[T]he officers that work currently for tribal police department are all
tribal members, and, I may be wrong, but I don’t think I am in
saying that they live on the reservation, so there’s some ownership
issues with the place they work and live. So, I think that they get a
service from an ownership level — I think they’re more attuned to
the specific needs of their community. I think that greater
understanding of who’s who in the community, the history amongst
families and relationships, and the relationships amongst them. We
398
This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
This report has not
been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
have a better area knowledge and get a faster response time because
of the better knowledge of the area. I think they can find and locate
people with greater ease than the local deputies here.
Only 1 criminal justice official from a PL 280 jurisdiction responded to this
question, and that respondent was from a jurisdiction that had a law enforcement services
agreement. In a lengthy reply to the question about the benefits of the agreement, this
respondent emphasized how the county in question looked beyond historical antagonism
between non-Indian and tribal populations to see the agreement as a “business
proposition.” According to this respondent, “[W]e look at [the Tribe and its associated
casino] as a partner that’s helping an area that otherwise would be very depressed and
without services, and helping to bring services to it.” This respondent also emphasized
the advantages from having the sheriff’s deputies cross-deputized as tribal police,
because “our sheriff can now cite people for reckless driving and speeding, you name it
on [the reservation] road, whereas before, we couldn’t. So it’s just an absolute winwin. ...”