Supporting Tribal Nations through Comprehensive Engagement & Investment

Ed. Note: This post has been cross-posted from usdoj.gov.

In line with Attorney General Holder’s commitment to enhancing public safety in Indian Country, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perrelli announced grants totaling $118.4 million to support law enforcement practices and sustain crime prevention and intervention efforts.

Tribal governments received awards in areas including public safety and community policing; methamphetamine enforcement; justice systems and alcohol and substance abuse; corrections and correctional alternatives; violence against women; elder abuse; juvenile justice; and tribal youth programs. 

“This year, we encouraged comprehensive safety planning– because we know innovative and holistic approaches work,” said Perrelli, who made the announcement at the department’s Four Corners Indian Conference in Ignacio, Colorado.

Perrelli also spoke about the department’s streamlined grant application for federal funding.  Now in its second year, the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) serves as a single application for existing tribal government-specific grant programs administered by the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs  (OJP), Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

Through consultations and listening sessions, tribes expressed a desire for a less cumbersome and flexible application system for grant funding. CTAS does both. The effort has been held up as an example of how federal coordination can better meet the critical needs of tribal nations.

Perrelli told the group:

Our government-to-goverment consultations have been critical to our understanding of how to better serve and support our tribal partners. By deepening our engagement with tribal governments, we have sought to help put an end to the unacceptable and sobering crime rates witnessed in Indian Country.

In the past two and a half years of the Obama administration, the Justice Department has taken a number of steps to deepen its commitment to Indian nations and to develop more effective partnerships with tribal leaders, police, prosecutors, courts and advocates to address and combat crime.

To learn more about the department’s efforts, visit justice.gov/tribal.

 Tracy Russo, United States Department of Justice