Tribal Interoperability Beat Intro Voiceover 00:00 This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Interview Barry Bratburd 00:08 This is Barry Bratburd with the COPS Office. With us today is Chief Bill Denke, Sycuan Tribal Police Department. Chief Denke is here to talk with us about tribal law enforcement partnerships. Now Chief, as a chief of a tribal police department, what local, state, or federal agencies have you partnered with to advance public safety efforts? Chief Bill Denke 00:28 First I think it’s real important to stress that, in order to effectively provide a seamless application of law enforcement services to our respective tribal communities in California, it’s essential to have those partnerships with the county, the state, and the federal government. With that being said, on a regular basis, a daily basis, we’re collaborating with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department from the line level all the way up. We also partner with state agencies such as Department of Justice, federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, and any other agency or jurisdiction that crosses over. Barry 01:06 Can you briefly describe a specific initiative or two where you partnered with one of these agencies? Bill 01:12 Absolutely. I think one of the most recent successful efforts was concerned with interoperable communications. San Diego County has probably one of the most robust, comprehensive interoperable communications systems, probably in the nation, where every law enforcement agency comes together and works off that system. There’s all kinds of common channels where officers can hail officers from other jurisdictions in the county. Until two years ago, we were not allowed access into that system. Of course the worst case scenario happened and it became an impetus for us to really sit down and try to find a workaround. We had a pursuit that started on the reservation, an armed federal fugitive our officer tried to stop. Pursuit went 10 miles and terminated with a traffic collision. Luckily, nobody was hurt too bad and the primary suspect was taken into custody. What was going on was our officer was communicating back to our dispatch via radio. The dispatch had the landline to only one agency whereas if we were in that system at the time, that would have been broadcast out to every agency within a 30-40 mile radius. It wouldn’t have went 10 miles and he probably wouldn’t have been the only one there on scene trying to apprehend the felony suspects. The good thing that came out of that was before we even had a chance to collaborate with the county on how to fix it, we actually collaborated on the press release about how we were going to address this concern. What it came down to was basically reworking the governing board’s policies to allow tribal officers to be issued special law enforcement commissions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to have access to that system. Barry 02:57 What challenges have you encountered in forging the partnerships that you have? Bill 03:02 Probably the biggest thing has been the misconception or the misinterpretation over the years of Public Law 280. We’ve worked past a lot of that, but it was pretty gross to the point where there were several nontribal jurisdictions or entities in California that felt that tribes in a PL280 state didn’t even have the authority to have their own justice system, police departments, or police officers. We’ve worked through that pretty well. It rears its ugly head every once in a while. Some things more tangible that get in the way now have to do with liability and how that’s tied to sovereign immunity. If we’re looking to enter into an MOU with another agency, that concern gets brought up quite a bit. What happens if the tribal officer—there’s an excess of force or a tort claim against the officer? How is that going to be handled? What if that officer accesses a database but he wasn’t authorized to be in that database? How is that going to be handled? Luckily we’re finding workarounds to a lot of that. Barry 04:06 Great. Do you have any recommendations for how tribal and nontribal law enforcement agencies can better partner together? Bill 04:13 Absolutely. First, we’ve got to forget a bit about the past and some of the horror stories and be cognizant of it, put it to the side, and really focus on public safety to make our communities safer. When we’re talking tribal jurisdiction, county jurisdiction, state, federal jurisdiction, in order to really successfully finally resolve some of the key issues out there, we’re going to have to work outside of our comfort zone. I think if we really put a focus on collaborative planning and training, we can mitigate a lot of the past concerns. Barry 04:47 Well thank you so much, Chief, for being with us today. We thank you for your expertise and your time Bill 04:51 Thank you. Beat Exit Voiceover: 04:53 The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems. Disclaimer: 05:09 The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues. ####END OF TRANSCRIPT#### 1