Bill would combat epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people by supporting tribal policing
A bipartisan bill in Congress aims to bolster tribal law enforcement and combat the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The BADGES Act makes resources available, assists with officer recruitment and retention and increases tribal access to a national missing persons database. KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius spoke with the bill’s cosponsor, Arizona Representative Ruben Gallego, about the challenges of policing in Indian Country.
Ryan Heinsius: A lack of communication and coordination between federal, state and other law enforcement agencies is often cited as a major deterrent to combatting the epidemic of missing murdered people on tribal lands. How would this bill break down some of those barriers?
Rep. Ruben Gallego: Well, look. Because a lot of our tribal governments have very few funds, they have to rely on federal government for investigative as well as just your just normal everyday law enforcement. If there is a local tribal police officer from preferably that nation, they might understand some of the intricacies that might cause a woman to either be missing, murdered or has just disappeared, or understand what’s happening in certain areas with certain families. There’s just a lot of things that we don’t understand as the outside world, so we need to empower these communities to protect themselves and give them their opportunity to really bring safety to their community and it doesn’t necessarily just have to happen from us at the federal level.
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By Ryan Heinsius, KNAU