Rounds to Interior Department: Bring tribal police training to South Dakota

From South Dakota Searchlight

Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Chairman Clyde J.R. Estes speaks to event attendees while Senator Mike Rounds stands by. (Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

Bureau of Indian Affairs police recruits in South Dakota need a training facility closer to home, South Dakota’s junior senator told the Department of Interior this week.

Sen. Mike Rounds urged the department to find a way to train tribal law enforcement in South Dakota in a letter to Brian Newland, assistant director of the department, which oversees the BIA.

Currently, most BIA officers are trained in New Mexico. In a Thursday news release, Rounds said the lack of a closer facility hamstrings recruitment efforts in the Great Plains, where some tribes have declared states of emergency over spikes in violent crime.

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“With no basic federal training options for tribal law enforcement on the Great Plains, prospective officers are opting to work for local agencies or leave the law enforcement field altogether,” Rounds said.

The letter to Newland points out that several tribal communities in South Dakota operate with just a handful of officers to patrol “millions of acres.”

“Criminal entities are taking advantage of these shortages and are distributing higher volumes of illegal drugs, including fentanyl,” the letter says.

The lack of a local training option was a topic of conversation in Wagner on Wednesday, when South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson met with leaders of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. 

Johnson suggested a partnership between the BIA and South Dakota’s Law Enforcement Training Center, located in Pierre. 

“I can’t imagine anything but good coming from tribal law enforcement training alongside the state’s law enforcement,” Johnson said. 

State Rep. Rocky Blare, R-Ideal, introduced a resolution during the 2024 state legislative session urging the establishment of a South Dakota training facility for tribal officers. It passed both chambers unanimously.

In his letter, Rounds tells Assistant Secretary Newland that he’s “become aware of several suitable, existing training facilities that could address the recruitment and training problem without significant cost.”

“With the current situation in mind, I respectfully ask you to meet with me to discuss this issue,” Rounds wrote.

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