Cortez – A tribal working group is exploring ways to strengthen law enforcement on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in an effort to get a grip on the town of Towaoc’s crime problem.
The group is receiving help from Colorado’s U.S. attorney, who’s determined to restore strong public safety for the tribe’s members.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement in Towaoc faces tough challenges with funding and staff levels, and the reservation – along with that of the Southern Ute Tribe in Ignacio – has a murder rate of 75 per 100,000 people, compared with 3.7 per 100,000 for the rest of Colorado, according to numbers from the U.S. attorney in Denver.
“It’s inadequate, to put it mildly,” said Troy Eid, the U.S. attorney for Colorado.
One way to invigorate the police force on the reservation is cross-deputization of officers from surrounding communities. It’s an option the working group’s participants – including BIA law enforcement officials, Ute tribal officials, the Cortez Police Department and sheriff’s departments from Montezuma County and San Juan County, Utah – are considering.
“It’s a great way to increase boots on the ground,” Eid said.
The parties have been working on a draft memorandum of understanding that would enable agency collaboration during emergencies and eventually lead to cross-deputization, said Peter Ortego, general counsel for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
In addition, the tribe is looking at increased training for the reservation’s security guards, Ortego said. “We’re trying to be creative yet leave our police accountable,” he said.
Cross-deputization would allow non-BIA officers to act as BIA authorities in Towaoc, issuing tickets and Court of Indian Offenses summonses, Ortego said.
Willing officers from neighboring departments would undergo BIA training and receive commissioning from the BIA, said Dan Breuninger, special agent in charge of BIA District 4 in Albuquerque.
Breuninger pointed to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane recovery in the South as factors affecting BIA funding.
“This year has been more stressful than other years,” Breuninger said. “Money’s been tight.” More officers in Towaoc during large events would be beneficial, he said.
“At the Bear Dance, powwows, it’s during those periods when we have a shortage of manpower, and surrounding departments would be helpful in beefing up the law enforcement presence,” Breuninger said.
No officer is stationed at the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s satellite community in White Mesa, Utah. The area depends on the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department, which has staffing issues of its own.
“We never have enough (officers), but the safety of the people comes first,” said Mike Lacy, San Juan County, Utah, sheriff. “We need to respond, whether it drains our resources or not.”
Lacy has cross-deputized with the Ute and Navajo in the past and may consider it again. But the four-day BIA training schedule poses problems.
“I can’t afford to send someone to school for four and a half days,” Lacy said.
Montezuma County Sheriff Gerald Wallace agrees.
“We have to be careful,” Wallace said. “We’re pretty thin on the number of officers we have on call.” Sheriff’s deputies are leaving Montezuma County’s force for other jobs, so BIA training could end up a waste of time, Wallace said.
“We’re losing so many people,” he said. “You’d get them trained, up to speed, and they would move on.”
Ute Mountain Casino pays the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office about $75,000 annually to respond to non-Indian incidents at the casino, Wallace said.
The two sheriffs also cite liability issues and the BIA’s access to personnel records for cross- deputization candidates as sticking points. What happens when a non-BIA officer shoots a suspect during a SWAT situation?
“We want to make sure we have the legal right to use force on the reservation,” Wallace said. “We need to address those issues first.”
Regarding employee records, Breuninger said the BIA just wants to make sure officers have received basic training and have undergone a background investigation, and to conduct spot checks every two or three years.
“We don’t want to sift through records,” Breuninger said.
The BIA began tightening its cross-deputizing requirements after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for security reasons, he said.
To reduce deputies’ BIA training time away from regular duties, Eid aims to trim the course from four days to two.
Eid, along with federal and Southern Ute officials, condensed BIA training to two days last month to commission officers from the Southern Ute Police Department, Southern Ute Rangers, La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office and Durango Police Department.
“We need to take the same approach at Ute Mountain,” Eid said.
The legalities of reservation law enforcement are complex, Eid pointed out in a March 4 column in the Durango Herald.
“Many crimes by non-Indians against tribal members and other Native Americans on the reservation are covered by federal law,” Eid wrote.
