WHEREAS, tribal law enforcement agencies play an integral role in securing the safety and security of all persons in the United States; and

WHEREAS, tribal governments control over 260 miles of international borders, which necessitates access to automated information systems within the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS); and

WHEREAS, CJIS guidelines authorize state governments to control access to CJIS, and several states deny tribal police access to CJIS while other states work cooperatively with tribal police in allowing access; and

WHEREAS, this inconsistency of cooperation jeopardizes public and officer safety and is not in the best interest of protecting the homeland security of the Untied States; and

WHEREAS, CJIS was created pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which states in part (Title 5, USC, Appendix Sec. 5, part 2) that it “requires the membership of the advisory committee to be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the Advisory Committee;” and

WHEREAS, the bylaws for CJIS Advisory Police Board (APB) and Working Groups, 2.0 Authority for advisory process allows “any criminal justice entity that believes they have a constituency which warrants a membership on the Working Groups or APB may petition the Advisory Policy Board for membership;” and

WHEREAS, tribal law enforcement is not represented on the APB or any Working Groups thus restricting the “points of view,” which adds to the lack of understanding and results in inconsistent policy of state governments when dealing with tribal police; now therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Indian Country Law Enforcement Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) petition the Advisory Policy Board (APB) to include one (1) tribal law enforcement representative; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Indian Country Law Enforcement Section of the IACP petition the APB to include tribal law enforcement on each of the four regional APB Working Groups, including a representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Law Enforcement Services on the Federal Working Group.