Bureau of Indian Affairs will support South Dakota tribal police academy summer session

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will send trainers to South Dakota to help finalize the certifications for any tribal trainees who take part in a special summer basic training course in Pierre.

That means they won’t have to finish their training at a BIA facility in New Mexico.

Division of Criminal Investigation Director Dan Satterlee made the announcement during Tuesday’s meeting of the Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission in Deadwood.

The deadline for tribal law enforcement agencies to commit recruits is Friday; the deadline for those recruits to submit applications is May 1.

The special session for tribal law enforcement would offer space for up to 48 recruits. Satterlee told the commission that the DCI has heard from several possible recruits since last week’s announcement of the session. If there aren’t enough recruits by Friday, he said, he and Attorney General Marty Jackley will “go visit some folks and get some more participation.”

Course follows controversial statements from Noem

The law enforcement commission oversees the rules, eligibility requirements and other administrative procedures for the Pierre-based basic officer certification course.

Jackley and Gov. Kristi Noem announced last Thursday that the state would hold the additional basic training class, starting in June, specifically for tribal law enforcement.

Noem has made several comments over the past two months about law enforcement on tribal land. She’s said that Mexican drug cartels have a foothold on reservations, and has claimed without offering evidence that some South Dakota tribal leaders are “personally benefiting from the cartels.” Four tribes have since voted to bar Noem from their reservations.

In a letter announcing the additional training course – which will be paid for out of the governor’s budget – Noem characterized the move as an olive branch, extended in the interest of public safety.

Training covers tribe-level officers

Tribes can use federal Bureau of Indian Affairs funding to operate their own law enforcement agencies under what are known as 638 agreements. Six of South Dakota’s nine tribes have such agreements, but many have struggled to recruit officers.

The scheduling and location of training has been part of the problem with recruitment.

BIA officers are required to attend a 13-week training course at the Indian Police Academy in New Mexico. Tribally employed law enforcement officers can train at the South Dakota academy, however, and become certified through the BIA to work for the tribes with an additional two-week course in New Mexico.

Space in South Dakota’s basic training courses is limited, though. The state sometimes cuts tribal recruits if they’re accepted to the basic training course in New Mexico, Yankton Sioux Tribal Police Chief Alvin Young told South Dakota Searchlight last week, and offers those slots to state or local officers who wouldn’t have another training option.

The Noem-funded training class set for June would be solely for tribal recruits.

In Deadwood on Thursday, Satterlee told the commission that the BIA has agreed to send trainers to Pierre to allow the June cohort’s graduates to complete their last-step certification.

The on-site training would take less than two days, Satterlee said, instead of two weeks.

That should stand as a further enticement for potential tribal recruits, he said, as it means they’d be able to complete all their training close to home.

“It’s just good to see all these partnerships coming together to make this happen,” the DCI director said. “Hopefully we get a robust class size.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Bureau of Indian Affairs will support tribal police academy summer session