The Crow Nation Police force is based in Garryowen.
The Crow Tribe formed its own police department at the end of June amid a long process of federal contracting to break from Bureau of Indian Affairs, which the tribe has previously said failed in its duties to police the reservation.
The tribe announced late on June 26 the formation of a tribal police department and the termination of a "Memorandum of Agreement" for protections from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which until June 27 policed the reservation.
Based in Garryowen, in the Custer Battlefield Museum, the department began operations June 27.
The new Crow Tribe police department is based in Garryowen.
Work on forming a tribal police department has been in the works for years, but it began to solidify earlier this year after Chairman Alvin “A.J.” Not Afraid submitted a Public Law 93-638 proposal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to assume law enforcement services.
Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975, allows tribes to provide their own law enforcement through federal grants and contracts.
According to a press release the proposal has "taken additional time to review" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The BIA did not respond to several requests for comment on the status of the proposal.
Under federal law the FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs will still be responsible for investigating and prosecuting major crimes on the reservation. The FBI is investigating a June 28 murder on the reservation.
“The Crow Tribe no longer seeks to lead the nation in missing and murdered Indigenous people, and the Crow Tribe no will longer allow drug and human trafficking cases to go unprosecuted and uninvestigated,” Not Afraid said in a press release.
In late November, Not Afraid issued an emergency declaration over concerns that the BIA is not staffed adequately to respond to emergencies, combat serious crimes or address missing Indigenous people.
"The Crow Tribe will no longer accept 'lip service' for the unacceptable lack of law enforcement and public safety concerns," the declaration stated.
At the time Not Afraid said that only five BIA officers cover the more than 2 million-acre reservation.
Big Horn County, much of which is home to the Crow Indian Reservation, has the highest per capita rate of missing and murdered Indigenous people in the state.
Police chief Terrill Bracken said the department intended to train officers dedicated to MMIP cases, and that search-and-rescue efforts would be “an important part of what we do.”
Specifics of what that would look like were still being ironed out, he said.
In February, Bracken said during a community meeting in Hardin discussing law enforcement that an initial goal would be to hire more officers. During a phone call June 29, Bracken declined to say how many officers the department already had on staff.
The department's goal is to hire 15 police officers, he said.
“We’re in the process of expanding,” Bracken said.
That expansion plan includes a dispatch center. The new department does have a dispatch, which can be reached at 406-679-2465, but is still relying on BIA dispatch.
The BIA will continue to operate correctional operations, Bracken said.
Bracken declined to comment on funding and budgeting for the department.
The Crow's law enforcement joins other tribal police departments in the state. Other tribal police departments include Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services, Fort Belknap Law Enforcement Services, the Fort Peck Department of Law and Justice, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Police Department of the Flathead Nation, and the Chippewa Cree Law Enforcement of the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.
Bracken was named police chief in 2018, amid a push that year to form an independent police department. Since then he has worked with the Crow Tribe on the 638 contract.
Under the 638 contract the BIA will have some oversight over the police department.
Bracken said he had experience as a sheriff's deputy with the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office and he also owns Fusion Fight League, which promotes mixed martial arts fights in Billings and Montana.
As the department continues to blaze a trail, Bracken said he believed the department has already had a positive impact on the tribe.
“We’re only going to continue and improve and get better, because that’s our mission," he said.
Earlier in 2020, tensions about missing Indigenous people and violent crimes came to the forefront as residents and officials alike called for an increased police presence in Big Horn County.
In February, the Hardin City Council, which borders the Crow Indian Reservation, voted to form a municipal police department and sever the contract for law enforcement services from the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office.
A motivator for the new police department there was to free up Big Horn County Sheriff's deputies, which at the time was the only other law enforcement agency in the county aside from the BIA.
