Reserve law under fire

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The "under-funded, and all too frequently inadequate" state of law and order on Alberta reserves came under fire when a Indian Association of Alberta task force released a discussion paper to leaders at the All-Chiefs conference, Sept. 29.

"Alberta Indian program delivery lags behind Indian policing programs elsewhere in Canada," says the paper, which must receive approval from the chiefs before the task force releases it to the government.

The task force has been working on alternative reserve policing since last June after learning the Federal government had established its own task force, to deal with policing problems. The IAA countered and formed the task force, to ensure the Native community has alternative input in the government's decision on the issue.

The task force learned the provincial government's new proposed Police Act (Bill-16) "does not even mention the word reserve or Native," says Andy Bear Robe.

Although the new Police Act encourages local municipalities to assume community policing responsibility, task force members do not feel reserves should be classified as municipalities.

"We're being corralled into being called municipalities. But, we want a separate section in the act that can deal with reserve policing alone," said Bear Robe.

A major concern of the task force is funding and training of Tribal police officers. Bear Robe says officers are "badly under paid" adding training dollars "don't sufficiently meet their needs."

He noted a tribal officer receives $12,000 a year while his RCMP counterpart gets $45,000 annually ? a different of $33,000. These salaries were confirmed with Indian Affairs, which funds Tribal police forces in the province. The salaries also cover expenses and training of individual officers.

Task force members argue that Tribal officers need special training as well as basic, to deal with sensitive reserve issues. Former U of A lecturer Leroy Little Bear explained a training program should involve "knowing the basic needs, costumes, language and mannerisms of the band ? all of these things are essential in the Indian community." he says, adding the task force plans to appeal for more training dollars.

Although the RCMP does not make any financial contributions to the Native special constables program, which employs and trains Native RCMP special constables, Bear Robe feels the program serves RCMP needs and has "little or no relevance" to reserve policing.

Negotiations with the government will take place after the All-Chiefs conference Oct. 7 after leaders discuss task force findings.