Pine Ridge cops walk off the job

By Journal staff | Wednesday, August 13, 2008

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A continually escalating rift between Oglala Sioux Tribe public safety officers, the OST police chief and tribal council members ignited an altercation Tuesday.

The Rapid City Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent agents about midday to Pine Ridge to deal with a situation.

"We received a call that there are some issues between the police and council members," said Bob Perry, FBI supervisor in Rapid City. "We sent agents to assist the BIA with an investigation."

Witnesses said that more than 30 police officers walked off the job Tuesday morning in protest of changes to officer assignments and the continued employment of Joe Herman as chief of Oglala Sioux Tribe Police at Pine Ridge and OST Police Captain Milton Bianis.

"We object to the lack of experience by the chief of police. He has 27 years of security experience but only 10 months as a police officer," said Ken Franks of Pine Ridge, a OST officer for 10 years.

Kevin Yellow Bird Steele, judiciary coordinator for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said the OST officers were meeting with the judiciary committee Tuesday morning but left the meeting in protest.

There was a confrontation with Herman and OST officers near the Boys and Girls Club east of Pine Ridge.

"I heard they attacked the chief of police and other members of the judiciary committee," Yellow Bird Steele said.

"They said we beat up the chief. We tried to restrain him from choking one of our officers," Franks said.

The issues between the officers and the chief have continually escalated, Yellow Bird Steele said.

"They have been threatening to walk off the job for the last three weeks," he said. "They say there's not enough money for the department and they had been assigned to different districts they didn't like."

Until recently, tribal police officers were centralized in Pine Ridge and Kyle and would respond to calls for law enforcement from throughout the Pine Ridge reservation.

"It would take one to two hours to reach each district. By then, things had been disbursed," Yellow Bird Steele said. "Now, he has stationed them in districts. It's what the people wanted."

Franks said Yellow Bird Steele is misrepresenting the situation.

"We can fix all the other problems, but these two guys are the ones causing the problems," he said, referring to Herman and Bianis.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal council met throughout the day in the council chamber in the Red Cloud Building at Pine Ridge to determine the course of action concerning the police. The outcome was not available by news deadline.