Clinton wants huge increase in Indian law enforcement
Story-Date: 01:45 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 28, 1998

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Clinton wants huge increase in Indian law enforcement


By Philip Brasher
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration wants to hire hundreds of
additional police officers, investigators and prosecutors to deal with a
surge of violent crime on the nation's Indian reservations.

President Clinton's 1999 budget would boost spending on reservation
law enforcement by 140 percent, from $130 million this year to $312
million. The budget won't be released until next week, but the numbers are
contained in a Jan. 20 letter to the White House from Attorney General
Janet Reno and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

Reservation law enforcement "often fails to meet basic public safety needs"
at a time when "serious and violent crime is rising significantly," the
letter said. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

In addition to the extra personnel, the spending increase would pay for a
crash program to build badly needed jails.

The homicide rate on Indian lands soared 87 percent over the past five
years, even as it dropped 22 percent nationwide.

There are 1,600 BIA and tribal officers patrolling 56 million acres of
Indian land, or 1.3 officers for every 1,000 residents, compared with 2.9
police officers per 1,000 residents in rural non-Indian communities.

Reno and Babbitt recommended that the Interior Department's Bureau of
Indian Affairs remain in charge of law enforcement on reservations, but
most of the $182 million increase would be channeled through the Justice
Department. Justice officials had proposed to take over the BIA's police
functions, but tribes were sharply divided over the plan.

The increase includes $54 million in grants to tribes to hire approximately
500 police officers, $52 million for construction of jails and $25 million
for the BIA to hire additional investigators and meet other needs, said a
Justice Department official, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

The FBI also would add 30 more agents to the 100 now assigned to
investigate major crimes on reservations, and U.S. attorneys would get
money to hire new prosecutors, the source said.

A BIA spokesman declined comment. But Kevin Gover, the Interior
Department's assistant secretary for Indian affairs, has said the Justice
Department plan to take over Indian law enforcement could be resurrected if
the BIA fails to make headway in curbing reservation crime.

"More cops don't mean anything unless we're dropping the crime rate," Gover
said last week in South Dakota.

In most states, the BIA either provides direct police services or pays the
bill for tribal departments. In several states, including California,
Minnesota, Oregon and Alaska, the primary responsibility for law
enforcement on reservations rests with the state. Those states would be
eligible for the Justice Department funds.



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