Robert Salgado Sr. wants tribal security officers instead of Riverside sheriff's deputies to patrol the reservation.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:07 PM PDT, August 12, 2008

The chairman of the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians wants tribe members to receive state law enforcement training so that they can patrol the reservation instead of Riverside County sheriff's deputies, whom the tribe has clashed with in recent months, according to City News Service.

Chairman Robert Salgado Sr. told a news service reporter during a break in a public forum Monday night that he planned to send eight tribal security officers to qualify for California Police Officer Standards and Training certification, a requirement for deputies, police and other law enforcement officers. The forum was called to discuss a federal law that gives local law enforcement agencies the authority over a number of tribes. Salgado did not return calls this afternoon.

Tribal security forces, who are unarmed, are not required to have state certification to patrol the reservation and respond to misdemeanors.

FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article quoted Mike Hiles, tribal information officer for the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, as confirming the comments of Chairman Robert Salgado Sr. regarding his plans to train tribal security officers. Hiles later changed his statement and said he had no direct knowledge of Salgado's comments and was not authorized to speak on behalf of the tribe on this issue. Also, the account of Salgado mentioning the plan during a panel discussion Monday night should have credited City News Service and Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.

Riverside County Sheriff's Lt. Patricia Knudson, the tribal liaison with the Hemet substation, said the chairman's proposal "would be wonderful."

"Then they could enforce state laws on Indian country, and then the sheriff's department wouldn't have to be responsible for that," Knudson said.

One way tribes have started to police themselves in California and a handful of other states with similar laws is to work with local sheriff's departments to cross-deputize tribal members.

In Northern California, Humboldt County Undersheriff Michael Downey said his office began cross-deputizing members of the Hoopa tribe in the mid- to late 1990s, making it one of the first offices to do so. Such deputies are held to the same training and ethical standards as non-tribal deputies, he said, and are considered reserve officers.

Carole Goldberg, a UCLA law professor who specializes in tribal law , said cross-deputization has been rare in California because of the state officials' strict interpretation of Public Law 280. Cross-deputization, however, is common in other states such as Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin, where state officials provide incentives for local law enforcement to cross-deputize.

Legislation before Congress would grant federal money and other incentives to promote such efforts.

"Typically, these agreements are made to provide more effective service to reservation communities," Goldberg said, adding that cross-deputization increases the number of available officers and aids investigations.

"If you have more knowledgeable people providing the police service to the community, they are going to understand the culture better and the tribal authorities better and will potentially be more trusted, which contributes to better policing," she said.

Knudson said that although training tribe members to meet state police standards is a good idea, cross-deputization is "not an option in Riverside County at this point" because it would be difficult to make sure tribal deputies adhere to department standards.

It was not clear today whether Salgado was interested in cross-deputization.

Salgado first mentioned his plan during a panel discussion Monday night in San Jacinto called to address mounting tensions between the tribe and sheriff's deputies concerning federal Public Law 280, which gives state authorities the right to enforce the law on Indian land, according to CNS and Riverside Press Enterprise reports. Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff did not attend the meeting.

Sniff has said his deputies need to be able to enter the reservation to investigate and serve warrants without identifying themselves and their specific destination. He says crime rates on the reservation last year were triple those of surrounding cities.

"We want to be able to enforce the law and protect the community, whether native or non-native," Knudson said.

Earlier this month, the state corrections department ordered all parolees to leave the reservation, saying the area was unsafe for officers to enter. In May, three tribe members armed with assault rifles were killed in gunfights with deputies, some of whom were shot at as they patrolled the area in a helicopter.

Tribe members have routinely stopped sheriff's deputies at the gates of the reservation in recent months, despite the threat of arrest and possible closure of the Soboba Casino.

Tribal legal experts and leaders say Public Law 280 does not allow law enforcement to enter without probable cause onto reservation land, which they compare to a private ranch. Salgado and others have said that sheriff's deputies need a warrant or permission to enter the reservation and that Sheriff's Department officials overstated crime on the reservation.

"The chairman's position is that they can't just come on and patrol the reservation," said Mike Hiles, the public information officer for the tribe. "It's a matter of the law." molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com