The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has awarded $500,000 to the Mendocino County (Calif.) Sheriff's Office to fund a community policing demonstration project in collaboration with the Round Valley Indian Tribes, the Round Valley Unified School District and the U.S. Forest Service, according to a press release issued by DOJ on June 1.
The award will fund the hiring of two Mendocino County deputies who will reside on the Round Valley Reservation for 18 months and work with the tribes' leadership and community members on projects that address drugs, crime and school violence.
The award will also fund a technical assistance provider who will offer on-site training, conduct evaluations of the project and document promising practices.
This is a step in a positive direction. But what happens after 18 months? Will they lose the deputies after 18 months? This community is remote and needs two resident deputies long after 18 months.
ReplyDeleteMost of the law enforcement officers that receive training are non-native and as soon as they receive training that may provide them with an increase in their salary they move on to a different destination. The tribes should get smart and have them sign an agreement that anyone who gets training has to stay with the tribe they are working for for several years or they will have to pay the funding that was used to get them this training. It appears they take advantage of tribes, most do not even care about the safety of tribal members. On our reservation I have not seen any officer doing safety checks on our road for a number of years. And if you call them for a particular concern, they do not even answer. Were paying officers for nothing. We need to train our own tribal members instead of going outside our culture. Background checks are very important, especially for their work history, there is a reason why some are moving around too much. When one lives in a rural setting we seem to get ignored by the big shots. They seem to not understand the problems we have and they cannot get of their plush offices and take a look at what is going on. Especially, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, they need to close it down.
ReplyDeleteAll avenues need to be discussed. Being a Native American police officer is not always the best move.Talk to former officer's and ask them why they left. Arresting relatives, even a mother or sister is not easy. More to it then just training police to work on the REZ.
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