Tribe escapes COPS deadline

By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 03, 2005

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PINE RIDGE - As a 2003 U.S. Department of Justice grant's expiration date draws near, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety scrambled to find new funding sources to keep its officers on duty.

On Tuesday, Duane Yellow Hawk, Bureau of Indian Affairs self-determination specialist for financial programs, said that the department received an extension for the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, grant from the federal Department of Justice.

"We have enough funding to allow operations until March 2006," Yellow Hawk said.

Yellow Hawk had asked the finance department to see what the department could do before it closed the accounts. They discovered that the OST Public Safety Department could extend the grant with enough money to carry the department into March.

"It provides a breather for our police officers," he said.

For months, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation law enforcement authorities had pleaded with local and national representatives to increase funding for its police department to keep its 57 officers — about 67 percent of its police force — on the job after a $4.5 million COPS, grant expires at the end of August.

Since receiving the 2003 $4.5 million COPS grant, OST Department of Public Safety has increased its technology, created a 911 system, increased, trained and certified its police force and expanded its dispatch services to cover 97 percent of the reservation.

Reservation residents worried that a shrinking police force would lead to more crime, slower or no responses to 911 calls and added stress to the 27 officers who would have remained to patrol the sizeable reservation.

One of those concerned about the reservation's Public Safety Department is Joe Spotted Bear, 31, who lives in the rural community of Fast Horse Creek.

Spotted Bear said that in large and small communities on the reservation, boys and young men are becoming entangled in criminal behavior.

"In a lot of the little communities, we have gang activity," he said.

Spotted Bear wants increased police presence in schools and communities.

"It is a big thing down here. It would concern me if they did let go of 50 police officers," Spotted Bear said.

But because of a reversal of fortune, officers will not be relieved of their duties, at least for now.

But until March, Yellow Hawk said, the department would apply for more grants to fund its officers. "We can't relax until we find another grant," he said.

Yellow Hawk said the department had submitted applications to the Department of Justice for two highly competitive two-year grants totaling nearly $9 million that would provide funding for personnel, equipment, technology and training.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com