County votes to withdraw from law enforcement agreement

POLSON – Lake County officials took initial strides last week to withdraw from an agreement to prosecute felony crimes involving tribal members on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

At a packed public hearing on Jan. 11, county commissioners passed a resolution of intent to withdraw from Public Law 280, which officials argue is a drain on local resources.

While a full dissolution of the arrangement hinges on similar actions by the state, tribal and federal entities involved, commissioners said the move will at least draw other parties to the negotiating table.

“I believe we have to do this as a first step,” Commissioner Dave Stipe said.

Stipe and his fellow commissioners stressed their desire to remain in the agreement, but maintained that additional funding is needed for continued participation.

Although the law has served as a longstanding point of contention, the county’s recent financial woes and dwindling tax revenue have lent urgency to the issue.

Lake County Attorney Steve Eschenbacher said that prosecuting tribal member felonies costs the county roughly $2 million per year. With an explosion in drug-related crimes in the past two years, Eschenbacher said detention facilities have become overwhelmed and certain offenses go overlooked.

“We only have the worst people in jail,” he said. “If you have a few grams of meth, we don’t have room for you.”

Such crowded conditions have drawn scrutiny from human rights organizations, resulting in a standing court order to construct a new jail and courtroom.

“We were sued,” Eschenbacher said. “And that cost us a lot of money.”

Despite the county’s arguments, law enforcement officials at the hearing were skeptical of whether withdrawing from Public Law 280 would solve such problems, and remained adamantly opposed to the proposal.

Lake County Ben Woods, speaking on behalf of Sheriff Don Bell, who was unable to attend the meeting, said the current partnership between the sheriff’s office and tribal police serves as a shining example for reservations across the state and the nation.

He said the federal agencies which typically handle law enforcement on reservations do not have as much of a presence as local officers.

Handing over jurisdiction, Woods said, would create a “patchwork of authority” and a “bureaucratic monster.”

Tribal Police Chief Craig Couture echoed this concern over a lag in enforcement if the county withdraws.

“If we go away from this…there’s going to homicides, rapes and drug problems falling through the cracks,” he said.

County officials acknowledged the apprehension, agreeing that the federal government was not necessarily the answer.

“If someone steals your truck it might not be worth it to the FBI to investigate,” Eschenbacher said. “But it’s not to say we’re going to revert to the Wild West days.”

Commissioner Gale Decker said he would prefer to continue participation in the agreement and remains open to finding an additional funding source.

“Two or three million is not an insurmountable amount to come up with,” Decker said.

In conjunction with a withdrawal, the county’s resolution of intent calls for officials to continue working with the 2017 Montana Legislature to explore sources of funding.

Rep. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, said earlier this month that he is drafting a bill requiring the state to reimburse counties impacted by the law.

Since Montana enacted voluntary participation in Public Law 280 in 1963, the CSKT are the only tribal government that has entered into such a partnership.

Jim Taylor, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, which sued the county over its jail conditions, took a stand at the hearing to give a history of the social elements behind the issue.

He said the federal law was passed in the 1950s as part of a series of reforms designed to strip tribal governments of their authority. Shortly after the Flathead Reservation adopted the agreement, he said tribal leaders attempted to withdraw but received significant push back from the state and the county.

He said the decision to withdraw now in the midst of a crime wave is a telling development.

“The irony should not be lost on this,” he said. “You don’t have a tribal member problem, you have a drug problem.”

Despite the criticism from Taylor and others at the meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to pass the resolution, citing the desire to get the ball rolling on a possible solution.

“There will be more discussion of this in a public setting,” Decker said.