Legislature close to OK’ing bill for tribal law enforcement

Sponsor: ‘It comes down to equal, dependable protection under the law’

March 7, 2008

OLYMPIA – Close to heading for the governor’s desk, legislation is moving here in the capital that would authorize qualified tribal police officers to serve as general-authority Washington state police officers.

The trained and certified tribal officers will be authorized to enforce all criminal and traffic laws of Washington and the United States.

Sponsored by state Rep. John McCoy, the measure (House Bill 2476) passed the House earlier this year, 58-37, and the Senate today (March 7, 2008), 34-15. The bill now comes back to McCoy’s legislative chamber, and he said he foresees House concurrence with Senate amendments.

“It took months of give-and-take to hammer out a compromise that every side of this particular issue can ultimately support,” the Tulalip Democrat said.

“It shows true collaboration and compromise from every one of the stakeholders. Many very involved law-enforcement folks and other citizens worked for months to write this new state policy. Importantly, this new standard is supported by members of the Snohomish County law-enforcement community, as well as the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.”

McCoy said that Indian and non-Indian residents on reservations are living with some of the highest crime rates in the country.           

“An overwhelming majority of crimes committed against Indians are committed by non-Indians. Non-Indians are the perpetrators of violent crime against Indians in from 60 to 90 percent of the cases,” he pointed out. “And the perpetrators are people over whom tribal police don’t have any jurisdiction today.”           

Under existing law, when a serious felony is committed on a reservation by a non-Indian and a suspect is detained by a tribal police officer, the tribal officer is forced to wait for the arrival of a county sheriff’s deputy. Consequently, the tribal officer isn’t available to respond to other calls for police assistance on the reservation.

“The practice of calling local non-Indian law-enforcement agencies to arrest and investigate crimes committed by non-Indians on the reservation has been in place now for 30 years, and it simply doesn’t work,” McCoy said.

“The genesis of this measure is that all citizens have a right to feel confident that people who commit crimes will be held accountable. It comes down to equal, dependable protection under the law.”          

Tribal police departments have standard, 14-week field-training programs for their officers.

In Snohomish County, the Tulalip Police Department has most of its more than two-dozen officers certified.

The tribal departments that have their officers certified and commissioned under this bill will have supervisory personnel and field-training officers who are also certified and commissioned and who can accomplish effective field training.

McCoy said that tribes have worked with the state Office of Financial Management to demonstrate their commitment to retaining adequate liability insurance. Also, tribal police departments will waive any defense of immunity for torts committed by Indian police against non-Indians.