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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

‘Trying to navigate jurisdictionally’

Helo Hancock, legislative director for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, introduces the tribe's proposed policing legislation at a hearing on Wednesday; at right is the tribe's lobbyist, Bill Roden. (Betsy Russell)
Helo Hancock, legislative director for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, introduces the tribe's proposed policing legislation at a hearing on Wednesday; at right is the tribe's lobbyist, Bill Roden. (Betsy Russell)

"What we are trying to address today is a problem with law enforcement and crime on Indian reservations," Helo Hancock, legislative director for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, told the House Judiciary Committee as the hearing on the tribal policing legislation opens. "The complications that exist on Indian reservations are largely the result of federal law," which, he said, are "laws that no one can change, but we're all left trying to navigate jurisdictionally."

According to U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Hancock said, tribes have civil and criminal jurisdiction on their reservations. However, they don't have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians on the reservation, "even when a crime has been committed against a member of an Indian tribe." Tribal police do have authority to detain non-Indians for violations of state or federal law, he said. But, he said, "We have this problem where there's a gap in jurisdiction over the enforcement of the criminal laws on an Indian reservation. It's a unique situation, that I think makes police, law enforcement on the Indian reservation extremely inefficient and allows for some criminals to escape justice."

That gap, Hancock said, can be addressed with a cross-deputization agreement, such as the one in place between the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and Kootenai County. But the Benewah County sheriff terminated a similar agreement there in 2007. "Another solution is state law," Hancock said, like what the tribe is proposing. And, he said, yet another solution is a "federal remedy," which is authorized by federal law - tribal officers can be federally deputized, and essentially make state law violations onto the reservation into federal laws. Hancock said the Coeur d'Alenes prefer cross-deputization, but if they can't have that, they prefer a state law approach to bringing in the feds.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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