Tribes, police join to fight reservation crime

LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis.

The two law officers meeting over breakfast at the Lake of the Torches Casino had not gone there looking for trouble, but they found it when they walked out into the sunshine and saw two teenagers flashing bills in the parking lot.

They quickly patted down the teens, then searched their casino hotel room. They netted a pocketful of marijuana, four bottles of vodka and a 17-year-old girl who had told her parents she was visiting a friend in Minnesota.

A small-time arrest by any standard, but this one in April represented something larger. The lawmen were Lac du Flambeau tribal Police Capt. Bob Brandenburg and Wisconsin Justice Department Special Agent Tom Sturdivant, and the sight of a state agent working side by side with a tribal officer to fight reservation crime symbolized a new kind of teamwork.

The effort to open communication and cooperation between tribal and state law enforcement agencies has generated attention far from Wisconsin. While some have raised questions about the potential impact on tribal sovereignty, others point to the effectiveness of the new approach.

Over the past decade, gangs and drugs have run rampant in Indian Country as bad guys realized the lightly policed reservations made ideal playgrounds.

In Wisconsin, the state Justice Department quietly coaxed tribes to band together into a one-of-a-kind task force that could be a template for other states dealing with reservation crime.

The team, branded the Native American Drug and Gang Initiative (NADGI), has developed a core of Indian undercover officers and enabled them to infiltrate tribal drug rings. The program has given every tribe access to the state’s central criminal data-sharing system and set up regular training for tribal drug officers.

“Five white guys driving nice vehicles in a [reservation] subdivision, we stand out like a sore thumb,” said Mr. Sturdivant, the task force leader. “Now we’ve got Native American guys. They know the friends and foes.”

Crime has long been a problem in Indian Country, but the violence has spiked.

According to FBI statistics, homicides and non-negligent manslaughter on reservations increased 14 percent between 2002 and 2006. Robberies jumped 123 percent between 2002 and 2006. Most of that rise is linked to drugs, authorities say.

Reservations offer near-perfect hide-outs and lucrative markets. They’re often remote, with few businesses and job opportunities. Reservation unemployment was 13.6 percent, and almost one in three residents lived below the federal poverty line, according to the 2000 census. Selling drugs means easy money. Using them means escape.

“There’s nothing for the kids here,” said Wanda LaBarge, a 48-year-old Lac Courte Oreilles tribal member who lives on the Lac du Flambeau reservation. “There’s no jobs. You see 10-year-old kids in little four- to five-member gangs walking and breaking windows. Something’s going to escalate.”

Reservations pose myriad problems for police.

They’re so large that police can’t patrol them adequately. Tribal departments often are understaffed and lack training and money. The Lac du Flambeau Police Department has nine full-time and four part-time officers to cover about 3,000 people spread over 108 square miles, Chief Elliot Rising Sun said.

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