DORGAN OBJECTS TO BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS ACTION THAT TRANSFERS SIX POLICE OFFICERS FROM STANDING ROCK

Senator says BIA must maintain increased law enforcement presence on reservation

Thursday, August 21, 2008

CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or  Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is objecting to action by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs that reduced the number of police officers that have been sent to the Standing Rock Reservation as part of Operation Dakota Peacekeeper.

Last week, the BIA sent 25 police officers to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to supplement that tribe’s police force. Six of those officers were among those who had been assigned to the Standing Rock Reservation.

“The Standing Rock Reservation had a crime rate that was more than five times the national average,” Dorgan said. “The additional police officers moved there by the BIA have substantially reduced the crime rate. This is not the time to reduce the number of police officers.”

In a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Dorgan said that instead of reducing the law enforcement presence on Standing Rock, the BIA should use the $23.7 million appropriated last year by Congress for the Safe Indian Communities Initiative to put more officers in American Indian communities with high crime rates. Dorgan noted that, at a U.S. Senate field hearing he conducted in Fort Yates earlier this month, the Interior Department had agreed to continue Operation Dakota Peacekeeper until the end of September.

“I understand the need to boost the law enforcement presence at other reservations, but that should not come at the expense of public safety on the Standing Rock Reservation,” Dorgan said. “The Interior Department made a commitment to maintain a significant police presence on Standing Rock. The BIA has the funding from Congress, and now they need to implement that plan and allocate the resources provided.”

Senator Dorgan has pushed the BIA for nearly a year to increase law enforcement at Standing Rock. Earlier this year, he organized a request from the North Dakota and South Dakota congressional delegations. In response, the BIA announced the Operation Dakota Peacekeeper initiative, which transferred 20 full-time officers to serve Standing Rock. Officials have reported that arrests have increased and crime on the reservation has dropped.

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