High crime rates on some Indian reservations have long been a public concern, especially to the Native American community at large.   The Department of the Interior’s (Interior) pilot program to reduce crime on Indian reservations demonstrates how transformative it can be when an agency adopts a goal that matters to a community, takes actions to address the problem, regularly measures and reviews relevant data to see if change is happening, and engages the local community in every aspect of the effort.  To seek solutions to this long-standing issue – but given tough constrains on its budget – Interior started a pilot program to test and identify effective crime reduction strategies on Indian lands.  In the 2011 Budget, Interior set an agency High Priority Performance Goal to reduce crime by at least 5 percent on four reservations with some of the highest crime rates. 

When this goal was set, most considered it ambitious; Interior had never before adopted a crime reduction goal and does not control many of the factors that affect the crime rate. Nevertheless, by the end of 2011, the initiative far exceeded its goal, reducing violent crime, on average, by a remarkable 35 percent across all four reservations, with crime going down on three of the four.

The importance and resonance of the goal won the cooperation of law enforcement partners and the enthusiasm of the local communities.  This enabled a comprehensive strategy that involved community policing, tactical deployment, and interagency and intergovernmental partnerships between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice (DOJ), and the tribal police departments.  The number of Indian country and DOJ officers on the ground was doubled and the number of law enforcement officers who received basic training increased ten-fold.  Interior also supported officer-initiated programs to help victims and their families along with programs to strengthen community relationships with law enforcement.  Community-launched innovations also played a role, such as an initiative on Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana to reduce juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior.

Recognizing the importance of fresh and actionable data, Interior has now established a computer-aided system to help analyze crime data, identify crime trends, and report criminal offenses.  These data and trend analyses were used to allocate resources and to evaluate law enforcement and community policing strategies.

The results strongly affirm the value of a data-based, goal-oriented approach that empowers local officials to drive change.  In the next two years, Interior is seeking to spread this success, starting with a replication demonstration at two new reservations, while continuing efforts on the original four reservations.