Smoke Signals
FEBRUARY 1, 2012
Conference smooths the way for police ffotrce
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
As the Grand Ronde Tribe ramps
up its first police force, a Jan. 12
13 conference at Spirit Mountain
Casino hosted by the Confederated
Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Indians lent the effort a
helping hand.
Recent state legislation - Senate
Bill 412 passed in 2011 - "provides
authorized Tribal police officers
with certain powers and protections
provided to Oregon law enforce
ment officers."
In short, the law allows Tribal
police to pursue suspects and make
arrests off their respective reserva
tion. Simultaneously, it sets up the
process for Tribal police to operate
under the same requirements as
other Oregon police.
Legislators hope that its provi
sions also will knit together Tribal
police forces with local, state and
federal police agencies, giving the
public seamless police work across
many jurisdictions.
Also in 2011, the Grand Ronde
Tribe announced the appointment
of its first police officer, Tribal
member Jake McKnight, who has
completed the state's 16-week po
lice academy program and finished
his four-month field training with
Polk County.
The conference brought together
Tribal, federal, state and local po
lice authorities to hear about the
requirements of the bill, and about
existing police resources that can
be made available to Tribal police.
The conference also played like a
welcoming committee for Tribal
police.
"We're walking through a brand
new process together," said Marilyn
Lorance, manager of the Oregon
Department of Public Safety Stan
dards and training. DPSST admin
isters training, certification and
continuing education requirements
of Oregon's public safety officers.
"The dialogue is going really
well," Lorance said. "Moving for
ward, it is important to stay in
active dialogue."
"Fundamental to working rela
tionships with county sheriffs,"
said Wasco County Sheriff Rick
Eiesland, "is familiarity and coop
eration." Eiesland said the Wasco County
Sheriffs Office has worked with
nearby Tribes for more than 20
years.
The change runs counter to tradi
tional police practice, said Ken Reu
ben, Special Agent-in-Charge for
the Oregon Department of Justice's
Criminal Justice Division.
"Sharing is not the way it used
to be," Reuben said. "An informant
used to be considered a personal
resource, a career builder."
The new opportunities for Tribal
police as a result of SB 412 come in
the form of dozens of federal and
Tribal Council member
Toby McClary, left, and Jake
McKnight, Tribal police officer
and Tribal member, attended the
Senate Bill 412 Implementation
Conference at Spirit Mountain
Casino on Thursday, Jan. 1 2.
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy gives a welcome address to attendees
of the Senate Bill 412 Implementation Conference at Spirit Mountain
Casino on Thursday, Jan. 1 2. The recently passed bill provides authorized
Tribal police officers with powers and protections provided to Oregon law
enforcement officers.
state programs, ongoing under
cover operations and Web sites that
track countless peoples-of-interest
across the country.
In Oregon, intelligence programs
range from the Oregon State In
telligence Network to Regional
Information Sharing Systems to
Analytical Unit Services, and pub
lic safety officers throughout the
system are encouraged to partici
pate. One program enables safety
officers to access information about
impending warrants "to see if it
may involve one of their cases,"
Reuben said.
At the Watch Center, public
safety officers in the system have
access to "near real-time back
ground checks," he said. "It's all
Internet driven. You can view it on
your desktop."
Agnes Castronuevo, archaeolo
gist for the Confederated Tribes
of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Indians, and Nancy Nel
son, Oregon State Parks archae
ologist, described crimes covered
by the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation and
Archaeological Resources Protec
tion federal laws, and protocols for
fighting those crimes.
Adding Tribal police to existing
forces in the state dramatically
increases jurisdictional questions.
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
eries Enforcement, for example,
with 150 miles of Columbia River to
patrol, requires its officers to work
with a multitude of other police
entities and jurisdictions.
Tim Addleman, police chief for
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, has
been on the job for two years. "It
took the first year just to figure out
who has jurisdiction for different
crimes," he said.
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fisheries Enforcement officers
have to know the laws and customs
of the four member Tribes of the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission (Yakama, Nez Perce,
Umatilla and Warm Springs), of the
two states they come from (W ash
ington and Oregon), of jurisdictions
and laws covering county sheriffs
dotting both sides of the river,
medical examiners on both sides of
the river, as well as the laws and
customs of other Tribes on both
sides of the river.
Jerry Ekker, captain of the Co
lumbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
eries Enforcement, said that he
recently stopped a fishing boat
working out of season with three
Tribal occupants, all from different
jurisdictions. He ended up citing
all three for different infractions,
and ultimately sent each one to a
different court.
Tribal jurisdictions are made
more complicated because Tribal
lands are not always contiguous.
Some are like checkerboards of
Tribal and non-Tribal lands. The
difficulty of divvying up coverage
areas, along with provisions that
allow Tribal officers to pursue sus
pects off-reservation but does not
allow other police departments on
the reservation led county sher
iffs to oppose the legislation, said
Eiesland, but the sheriffs are now
working with Tribes.
'There are still some differences,"
said Eiesland. "It's the same as
medical marijuana. I don't agree
with it, but it's the law, so how do
we make it work?"
Ways to go about reducing worst
outcomes and making the most of
the new possibilities came down to
one idea, repeated over and over
during the two-day conference:
communication.
"Each Tribe is different," said
Stephanie Striffler, Assistant At
torney General for Oregon, "but the
overriding principle is developing
relationships."
While federal and state officials
are not certain yet whether new
Tribal police departments will
increase or decrease their work
loads, in Polk County, where the
Grand Ronde Tribe has funded the
Sheriffs Office for police coverage
by four deputies, Sheriff Bob Wolfe
anticipates that the Tribe's police
force will decrease the Sheriff s call
load by 50 percent or more.
"Everything being equal," he said,
See POLICE
continued on page 5
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