FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION — Gov. Greg Gianforte recently signed Montana Senate Bill 393 into law, a measure to provide funding for both Lake County and Tribal police for law enforcement-related expenses.
“In the past 18 months, the tribes have taken on 150-plus felony cases,” said Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes communications director Robert McDonald.
Watch to learn more about how the new law will impact Mission Valley law enforcement:
Lake County and Tribal law enforcement split the responsibilities of enforcing the law on the Flathead Indian Reservation under Public Law 280.
The agreement between the county and the tribes originated in 1962, but has since undergone many changes.
“Since the 90s, the tribes have been handling all of their own misdemeanor cases while the state handles all of the felony cases. Over the years, those felony cases have started adding up,” said Lake County Attorney James LaPotka.
Lake County and Tribal law enforcement are currently both responsible for those convicted of felony offenses, but in the past, Lake County was the responsible party for any tribal members who committed a felony offense.
“That's created an unsustainable situation for the county to keep prosecuting every felony on the reservation. So over the last couple of years, the tribes have really stepped up, and they've started enforcing drug possession cases against tribal members,” continued LaPotka.
The county states that because of the amount of felony offenses they have seen, it is putting a burden on their jail, with the cost for housing all inmates and the expenses that come along with that being $201,000 one month.
“In 2017, we started taking more of a deep dive into our public law 280 costs and you know they were increasing significantly and eating up a larger and larger portion of our county budget. So at that point, we started looking for some partners that could help pay the costs of Public Law 280,” said Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker.
The new law will provide $250,000 to both Lake County and CSKT by July and $1.5 million each year for the next two years.
The Lake County commissioners and the Lake County Attorney told MTN that they plan to use their funding that they'll receive to reimburse themselves for costs they have already incurred.
CSKT told MTN that they still have to figure out some of the details of what they're going to use their funding for.
