David Sossaman, police chief of the Los Coyotes Police Department, talks about his job patrolling the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation, which is located near Warner Springs.

Meet the smallest police department in the county: David Sossaman.

He is the police chief ---- and the only employee ---- of the Los Coyotes Police Department, and he is responsible for patrolling the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation, a remote, 40-square-mile tribal community near Warner Springs.

Although the county has 18 American Indian reservations, Los Coyotes is one of only three to have a tribal police department with sworn police officers on staff, Sossaman said. The other two are the Pauma Band of Mission Indians in Pauma Valley and the Sycuan Band of Mission Indians in East County.

Both Pauma and Sycuan own casinos, which help fund their police agencies. All other tribes in the county rely largely on contracts with the Sheriff's Department and private security personnel for law enforcement services.

Not having a casino means Los Coyotes relies on federal grants and its own resources, which include a campground operation, to fund its police.

Tribal communities, located far from most urban areas in the county, have long suffered from unemployment, poverty and crime. Casinos have begun to pull some local tribes out of poverty, but gaming has been an opportunity that has long eluded the Los Coyotes tribe.

Three years ago, the nearly 300-member tribe decided it had waited long enough to improve security on the reservation and decided to form its own department. Francine Kupsch, the tribe's chairwoman, said crime was rampant, and it sometimes took an hour or more for a sheriff's deputy to show up for a call.

"It was really bad out here," Kupsch said.

Culture clash

With Sossaman's help, things have started to change, Kupsch said.

Even when he is not on duty, Sossaman said he can get to the reservation from his Ramona home in about 20 minutes. All tribal members have his cell phone number, and they can reach him 24 hours a day, he said.

Some tribal members have even gone to his home when they needed help, he said.

Sossaman, 51, has held a number of law enforcement jobs. He said he started as a military police officer in the Army, and later worked as a police officer in National City and as a private contractor for the federal government.

In Los Coyotes, Sossaman said his law enforcement duties are similar to a cop in any city, but on a smaller scale.

His job is a lot like "Andy in Mayberry," he said, referring to the television sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show."

"I do a little bit of everything," Sossaman says. "I'm the dog catcher, ambulance driver and counselor. It's the way police work was supposed to be."

It didn't start out that way.

Sossaman said he encountered a bit of a culture clash when he began working on the reservation. A tall, hefty white man from Orange County, Sossaman said some people on the reservation, especially older women, would not talk to him at first.

He started reading about American Indian history and learned about past federal policies, such as taking Indian children from reservations and putting them in "Americanization" schools.

"It wasn't that long ago that when they saw someone like me, it was to take away their children or something bad had happened," he said.

Through personal interaction and "cups of coffee" with families on the reservation, Sossaman said he has been able to change those perceptions.

Out of poverty

The Los Coyotes reservation is one of the most impoverished communities in the county. Until 1998, the reservation had no electricity and many of its residents, who now number about 100 people, lived in old mobile homes.

In 2003, the tribe announced it planned to build a $150 million casino near Barstow, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and more than 150 miles from its reservation. Those plans have failed in part because of opposition to off-reservation casinos.

The tribe said that its reservation is far too remote to attract enough customers.

"It's unfortunate that because of where we live, we don't have the prime location for a casino that others have," Kupsch said.

She declined to discuss the tribe's current casino plans.

The tribe's remote location has instead attracted the wrong kind of crowd. Kupsch said drug dealers, methamphetamine labs and gang members have been found on the reservation.

Before Sossaman was hired, crime on the reservation was a decades-old concern for residents.

Sitting in the small trailer that houses the Police Department's office, Sossaman pulled out a copy of a letter dating to the 1930s. The letter, written by the tribe to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was a request for a police officer to patrol the reservation.

Thanks to recent federal grants, the tribe has been able to purchase equipment for its fledgling Police Department, including a fully equipped four-wheel-drive SUV, a communications system and a computer system linked to a federal criminal database called the National Crime Information Center.

Things have started to turn around, Sossaman said.

Much of the crime that he sees is from outsiders who come to the reservation to illegally hunt deer, drink or commit a variety of other crimes. In the past three years, Sossaman said he has had to arrest about 13 people. He has never had to draw his weapon, he said.

More resources

On a recent Friday morning, Sossaman bounced around in the cab of the tribe's SUV, patrolling the unpaved roads of the mountainous reservation. The vehicle is stocked with a shotgun and a military-style assault rifle.

Sossaman, whose friendly persona and appearance is reminiscent of the late comedian and actor John Candy, said he has to be prepared for anything because "I'm on my own."

On the roads of the reservation, cell phone reception is almost nonexistent, and the police radio is only slightly better. He patrols the roads at least once a day, and Sossaman said he is never really sure what he might encounter.

On his way up to Hot Springs Mountain, the highest peak in the county, Sossaman said he worries about potential marijuana growers in the area just outside the reservation.

Several illegal growing operations have been discovered recently in rural, northeastern parts of the county. Federal agents on Tuesday seized about 25,000 marijuana plants growing in a remote area of the Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation, just a few miles south of the Los Coyotes reservation.

Kupsch said the tribe hopes to hire two police officers in the future. A new law signed by President Barack Obama late last month gives tribes more law enforcement tools and resources, including access to criminal databases and police training.

"It will enable us to use more funding," the chairwoman said. "The president has heard Indian country's cry and heard that services have been neglected."

On his way back down the mountain, Sossaman comments on the reservation's natural beauty and wonders out loud why more people don't visit its quiet and empty campground.

The tribe recently extended his contract for three more years, Sossaman said, and he takes that as a signal that he is doing a good job.

"This is one of the best jobs I've ever had," he said.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.