Rampant crime has overtaken South Dakota’s largest Native American reservation and the federal government has stalled in helping improve law enforcement there, according to its tribal leader.
Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, is expected to declare a state of emergency on the Pine Ridge Reservation because gun violence, drug offenses and rape have become increasingly common on the Pine Ridge Reservation, according to reports.
There are just 33 officers and eight investigators responsible for more than 100,000 emergency calls a year on the 5,400-square-mile reservation, officials said.
Only four or five officers are on duty at any one time, resulting in response times of hours — or no response at all.
“With five police officers, it’s impossible,” Star Comes Out said in an interview on Friday.
Frank Star Comes Out, chief of the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota, is expected to declare a state of emergency due to rampant crime and inadequate funding for law enforcement.AP
“Our officers are overworked, underpaid. They have gone too far. And it is dangerous for them to answer the call themselves.”
Oglala Sioux officials say they are entitled to funding for 120 officers but federal officials dispute that, in part because their population is far smaller than the tribe’s total.
Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that the state has a duty to support law enforcement on the reservation, but declined to rule on whether the tribe should get the full funding it is seeking.
A march was held in Seattle in May to kill indigenous women, people and families. A South Dakota tribal chief is now declaring a state of emergency because of crime on one of his tribal reservations.AP
US District Judge Roberto Lange, however, told the federal government to reassess its census count and ordered US officials to meet with tribal leaders over the funding.
“In recent years, communities on reservations have struggled with dangerous and highly addictive drugs and experienced unprecedented levels of violence and threats to public safety,” Lange said earlier this year.
“In the Tribe’s view, the lack of efficient and effective law enforcement on the Reservation is a major reason for the crisis.”
On some reservations, indigenous women are murdered at more than ten times the national average, according to the Indian Legal Resource Center.AP
The decision in Pine Ridge could affect other tribes across the country, such as in Montana, where similar cases have been filed.
On some reservations, indigenous women are murdered at more than ten times the national average, according to the Indian Legal Resource Center.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
