Indian police say they're handcuffed by lack of computer data

By: CHRIS T. NGUYEN - Associated Press | Sunday, February 6, 2005 9:12 PM PST ∞

CABAZON INDIAN RESERVATION ---- Cabazon police Sgt. Ronald Karr has nearly all the privileges bestowed upon most other police officers in California ---- except one.

He can arrest people, write tickets, carry weapons, and respond to emergencies in a patrol car that comes equipped with wailing siren and flashing lights.

But what Karr ---- and every other tribal police officer in California ---- can't do is tap into state and federal law enforcement databases allowing them to check for criminal records and outstanding warrants on the people they stop.

Without that access, routinely made available to nontribal police, Karr and other tribal officers say they can run into trouble gathering even such basic information as a person's home address.

"You just don't know what's going on. You don't know whether someone has just robbed a bank or escaped from jail," said Karr, 52, bouncing in the driver's seat of his sport-utility vehicle as he patrols the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians reservation in Riverside County, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. "Without that kind of information, you're really in the dark. It's a scary feeling."

California, tribal officials say, is one of only a few states to deny such information to tribal police officers. State officials say they worry that if the information were used for nonofficial business, they would have no power to hold the tribes, which are sovereign nations, accountable.

"Tribes are sovereign, not bound by state law," said California attorney general spokesman Nathan Barankin. "So unless the tribe is willing to waive its sovereignty in some way or a state or local government agency wants to assume accountability on behalf of that tribe, there's no way to make a tribe bound by California law."

At least a few sworn, nontribal police officers in the state, Barankin said, have lost their privileges in recent years for using the information for personal gain.

The California Tribal Police Chiefs Association, which has filed suit in Riverside County Superior Court to obtain information about arrests and convictions, believes discrimination might be among the reasons behind the ban.

"The potential for abuse exists everywhere, not just on reservations," said Michael Meese, police chief for the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians in Northern California.

Tribal officials say public safety is becoming increasingly important on reservations because the booming gambling industry has drawn more people to Indian-run casinos.

"In order to do our job effectively we have to have the tools," said Stan Kephart, police chief of the Cabazon tribe and a member of the Tribal Police Chiefs Association, which filed the lawsuit last May. "We just don't understand how California has a system that denies us what the rest of the tribes in the nation get."

The dispute centers on access to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, which is controlled by the state attorney general's office. The network provides authorities with a myriad of data on California residents, including their driving records, criminal history and outstanding arrest warrants. It also provides a gateway to the National Crime Information Center database, which contains similar information on people nationwide.

State law limits access to the network to "sworn peace officers" employed by cities, counties and federal agencies. It makes no provision for officers working on Indian reservations, even though a 1953 federal law gave tribes in California, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin the right to enforce laws on their lands.

Since the law took effect, and tribes in those states began providing for their own law enforcement needs, California Indians have wanted the same access to information that other police agencies enjoy.

"Tribes do have their hands tied," said Mike Smith, interim director for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

He said, however, that BIA officials have been working with state officials to change laws and recognize tribal officers as sworn peace officers.

Under legislation proposed by state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Los Angeles, in 2001 they would have been granted that privilege. But Alarcon's bill, opposed by the California Peace Officers Association and other groups, died in committee.

Opponents argued that tribes would not be held liable for any abuses and that tribal officers do not receive the same training or evaluation as members of other police agencies.

"The procedures and the way people operate should be the same if you're going to be a police officer," said Tom McMains, the California Peace Officers Association's treasurer. "The biggest issue is the fact that they're operating outside the same rules as everyone."

Tribal police officers can choose to receive training from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has an academy in New Mexico, or from state-funded police academies. Some officers have also come to work for tribal police agencies from jobs in municipal police and county sheriff departments.

Unlike California, other states open their criminal databases to all law enforcement agencies, although some place added requirements on tribal police.

In Montana, for example, tribal police must be certified to receive access and must complete special training, said Assistant Attorney General Sarah Bond.

In Wisconsin, where tribes are given access, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians gets its information directly from the local sheriff's department, an arrangement that saves the tribe thousands of dollars, said tribal Police Chief Kathryn Makowski.

"I find that information-sharing is a backbone of law enforcement," she said. "Now, with homeland security issues, communication is extremely important."

California tribes are allowed to make similar arrangements to share information, but tribes say most sheriff's departments are unwilling to cooperate. Only the Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe in Northern California has such an agreement, with the Humboldt County sheriff's office.

Meanwhile, a majority of tribes in the state rely on sheriff's dispatchers for background checks but can only obtain limited information, such as whether someone has an outstanding arrest warrant.

With more and more people visiting casinos each year, it is important that tribal police be given every tool available to deter crime, said Carole Goldberg, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor who studies tribal law enforcement.

At the Cabazon reservation, total arrests are up more than 200 percent in the past five years to nearly 300 in 2004. The tribe, which has one of the largest casinos in the state and the largest tribal police department with 22 officers, says its officers often encounter dangerous felons without knowing anything about them.

In August, for example, Karr said he pulled over three men in a car, one of whom told him he was on parole for domestic violence. The man ran after Karr learned he also had an outstanding felony arrest warrant.

After he caught up with him and wrestled him to the ground, Karr said, he discovered the man had a loaded semiautomatic weapon in his pocket.

"Casinos have brought more outsiders to reservations and the presence of more outsiders to reservations has made it more important for tribes to gain more information about those outsiders," said Goldberg of UCLA.