BIA set to bring law enforcement 'surge' to two reservations

The Bureau of Indian Affairs plans to continue its law enforcement "surge" initiative in the coming years.

During the Bush administration, the BIA began sending additional staff to reservations with significant crime problems. According to the Department of the Interior Fiscal Year 2013 Budget, the effort resulted in an average 35 percent decrease in violent crime on the Mescalero Apache Nation in New Mexico, the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

Specifically, crime fell 68 percent at Mescalero, 40 percent at Rocky Boy's a 27 percent at Standing Rock. But at Wind River, which is home to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe, the violent crime rate rose 7 percent.

"Even though comparable strategies were deployed at this site, the expected reductions in crime were delayed," the budget document for the BIA states. "This is attributable to multiple factors, including increased reporting of crimes – in the other communities that are part of this initiative, there was an initial increase in reported crimes caused by the increased law enforcement presence before the crime rate began to decline."

In fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2013, the BIA plans to send more law enforcement to the San Carlos Apache Nation in Arizona and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.