Some tribal police would get more power under new bill to combat crimes like Indigenous kidnappings

A bill working through the state legislature would allow for some tribal law enforcement to be classified as peace officers to increase their ability to investigate and prosecute crimes as a pilot program. If passed, supporters hope it would serve as a model for a future expansion granting the same rights to tribes across the state.

Advocates point to a need for more culturally sensitive investigators – or in some cases, leeway to enforce state law in the absence of resources from local sheriff’s offices – as the motivation behind AB 2138.

More leeway to investigate

Currently, tribal law enforcement agents are not considered peace officers under federal law – meaning that their power to enforce state laws and collaborate with other law enforcement agencies is limited.

If passed, the law would put a three-year pilot program in place from 2025 to 2028 to grant some tribal law enforcement more power to investigate crimes and detain suspects, including non-native individuals, and to study the impact for the possibility of a permanent expansion.

Why advocates are calling for the law now

Assemblymember James Ramos of Highland, the first and only California Native American elected to the state legislature, introduced and sponsored the legislation.

At a press conference last week, Ramos, advocates and tribal members said they see the legislation as providing an additional fix to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

State officials have recognized this rise in disappearances and taken steps to address it, but many still say that more action is needed.

For Morning Star Gali, director of the advocacy organization Indigenous Justice, allowing tribal officers to enforce state laws – that is, having the authority to respond to reports of murders and kidnappings – would help families of missing and murdered people see justice.

“It's really frustrating for the families to say, ‘Hey, my granddaughter was held and disappeared at gunpoint, and we barely got an officer from Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, from MCSO, to show up with a pen and a pad of paper to take down notes,” Gali said.

Gali said that this has led to confusion and hindered investigations, especially in cases that cross county lines and involve multiple sheriff’s offices.

“We know as tribal people that our interactions are going to be different, that we are going to treat each other with dignity and respect and have those reciprocal relationships with one another,” she said.

While the bill applies to officers in three Northern California reservations – the Blue Lake Rancheria, the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, and the Yurok Tribe of the Yurok Reservation – its authors and sponsors hope it’s the first step in a process that will eventually extend to other reservations in the state.

“We hope this legislation will open the door and demonstrate to the state that allowing qualified tribal police to enforce state laws can be a win-win for both the tribal community and counties where law enforcement resources are limited,” said Heather Hostler, executive director of California Indian Legal Services, in a press conference supporting the legislation.

Advocates have been trying to pass legislation designating tribal law enforcement as peace officers since the 1990s, though the origin of the state’s classification dates back decades further to 1953. That was when Congress passed Public Law 280 and put in place the enforcement structure still in effect until the present day.

The classification of “peace officer” includes a large host of law enforcement in the state – from local police to highway patrol to law enforcement at the Port of Los Angeles – but it has not included tribal law enforcement. However, some tribes, including Southern California’s Morongo Band of Mission Indians, do have their own law enforcement staff recognized and run by the tribal nation. (Others, like the Pechanga Band of Indians, contract out to local sheriff’s offices.)

“It's time that the state of California comes together and becomes our greatest ally in bringing justice to California's first people and this nation's first people,” Ramos said at the press conference.