Yakama Nation, Yakima County Sheriff’s Office make joint funding request to improve public safety

YAKIMA – In an unprecedented move, the Yakama Nation has teamed with Yakima County in a call for federal help with public safety resources.

The governments made a joint request for additional law enforcement funding in a letter to U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse.

The request said the county and the tribe lack the number of officers needed to adequately patrol the vast areas of the county and the reservation. The county covers 2.75 million acres while the reservation spans 1.4 million acres with a large swath of that overlapping the county.

The Yakama Nation Tribal Police Department continues to lose officers to other agencies willing to pay more. The sheriff’s office also could use more deputies. On nights and weekends, the sheriff’s office has only three deputies available to patrol the southern portion of the county, which includes the reservation, the request said.

Violent crime, property crime, gangs and drug activity continue to rise in the county and on the reservation while both governments face resource shortages, the request said.

“Specifically, we ask for your help in securing existing and future federal funding to hire and equip additional law enforcement officers to police the significant territory within our respective jurisdictions and develop a regional crime lab to avoid the monthslong backlog at the state crime lab,” the three-page request said.

On Tuesday, Yakima County commissioners approved forwarding the joint request to Murray, Cantwell and Newhouse.

The request spells out a deeper working relationship between the Yakama Nation Tribal Police Department and the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office, including efforts to establish a regional crime lab here.

Early this year, Sheriff Bob Udell presented the regional crime lab proposal to county commissioners, and in July they awarded the project $2.8 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

The joint request for federal help described the regional crime lab as a “significant tribal, federal, state partnership to address the existing backlog at the state crime lab.”

The request pointed to a federal investigation into the death of a Yakama, and how a backlog at the state crime lab delayed the person’s burial. The dead are to be buried within three days of their death, according to Yakama tradition and customs.

There was a 12-month backlog for toxicology reports at the state lab and the family had to wait two months to receive the body, even though the case had been prioritized, the request said.

“A regional crime lab could have brought the decedent’s mother, and all those in our community who mourned the loss of their loved one, with closure in a way that honors our customs and traditions,” the request said.

The request also noted the county’s dismay over a Yakima County Superior Court judge dismissing a case against an accused rapist because of the backlog at the state crime lab delayed the investigation and violated the defendant’s right to a speedy trial.

The request didn’t specify a funding amount but said tribal police and the sheriff’s office have been working closer together in an effort to close the resource gap.

“We have taken this strategy as far as it can go. We simply need more resources. This joint ask is unprecedented for our governments and is intended to highlight how critical the needs are for our communities,” the request said.