South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley hopes a new basic law enforcement training course that prioritizes tribal recruits will prove the state could host regional training for Native American officers from the Upper Midwest.
Jackley and U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell spoke Monday at the George S. Mickelson Law Enforcement Center in Pierre, in advance of a media tour of the facility and presentations on the ongoing course.
The state’s police academy has long been open to recruits from tribal law enforcement agencies. In practice, though, most attend the 13-week training through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) at a facility in Artesia, New Mexico.
After the basic course is complete, the tribal recruits will be offered an add-on course in tribal policing, which also typically takes place in Artesia and focuses on tribal policing. The BIA has offered its support to that portion of the training in South Dakota.
“The overall goal would be to not just have South Dakota tribal or South Dakota BIA officers here, but because we do such a good job, to expand it regionally,” Jackley said.
Born of controversy, history of recruitment trouble
Gov. Kristi Noem threw her support behind the idea of an additional basic law enforcement course that would prioritize tribal recruits this spring amid a flurry of controversy over statements she’d made on public safety on the state’s tribal lands.
Noem delivered a speech on border security during the winter legislative session that linked migration at the U.S.-Mexico border to cartel-related drug abuse and violence on reservations. Noem has claimed without evidence that some tribal leaders are “personally benefiting” from a cartel presence on the state’s reservations.
Tribes have pushed back on those claims. Leaders in all nine of South Dakota’s tribes have voted to ban her from their lands, citing the claims about cartels, as well as what they’ve described as disparaging comments Noem made about Native American children and parents.
Even so, tribal leaders have long decried a dearth of funding for public safety on reservations, which is a treaty obligation for the U.S. government.
The typical expectation that tribal recruits spend weeks away from their families in New Mexico has been a barrier to recruitment noted by tribal leaders, as well as Noem and members of South Dakota’s congressional delegation.
U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, has called for the establishment of a Midwestern training center for the BIA, pointing to the state’s Mickelson Center as a prime partnership candidate for such an endeavor.
On Monday, Jackley praised Noem for throwing her support behind the current course, now in its sixth of 13 weeks.
You can read the full article at South Dakota Searchlight.