Las Vegas, Nev. -  Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, and Carl R. Peed, Director of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), are pleased to announce that five Nevada tribal police departments within the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, South Fork Bank of the Te-Moak Tribe, and Yerington Paiute Tribe, have been awarded a total of $1,162,882 in U.S. Department of Justice grants to hire and train police officers and procure equipment and technology. A detailed list of the grant amounts and tribal police departments is attached herewith.

Nationwide, the grants were awarded to 165 tribal police departments in 25 states, enabling the agencies to hire 102 new officers and purchase equipment and technology. The grants were awarded under the COPS Tribal Resources Grant Program, part of a broader federal initiative to increase the capacity of tribal law enforcement agencies. All federally recognized tribes with established police departments are eligible to receive Tribal Resources Grant Program funding. The grants pay 75 percent of salary and benefits of total project costs, up to a maximum of $75,000, and local funds pay the remainder. Each grantee is required to retain the new law enforcement officer positions for at least one full local budget cycle after the expiration of federal funding.

Since 1999, COPS has awarded more than $270 million to help Native American communities, many of which have limited resources and suffer from high rates of crime and violence, to hire more than 1,800 new police officers. In Fiscal Year 2003, an additional $35 million was awarded through the Tribal Resources Grant Program to bolster community policing and homeland security within Native American communities.

"Tribal police departments are a vital part of the nation's law enforcement network, and it is important they have the resources needed to protect their communities. Officers, equipment, and training are critical components of every law enforcement organization, and these grants will help ensure that tribal police departments are better prepared to fight crime," said Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"Nevada's tribal police departments are critical to ensuring the success of our statewide law enforcement and homeland security initiatives," said U.S. Attorney Bogden. "In that regard, I am pleased to see that these Nevada tribes have found it important to assist in our efforts and to take advantage of these Department of Justice opportunities to enhance their personnel, equipment and technology."

The Department of Justice's COPS Office was created as a result of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. As a component of the Justice Department, the mission of the COPS Office is to advance community policing in jurisdictions of all sizes across the country. Community policing represents a shift from more traditional law enforcement in that it focuses on prevention of crime and the fear of crime on a very local basis. Community policing puts law enforcement professionals on the streets and assigns them a beat, so they can build mutually beneficial relationships with the people they serve. By earning the trust of the members of their communities and making those individuals stakeholders in their own safety, community policing makes law enforcement safer and more efficient, and makes America safer.

More information on COPS is available at http://www.cops.usdoj.gov. Media questions should be directed to the COPS Office of Communications at (202) 616-1728.

Return to Top