Two Native American tribes in Arizona — the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the Yavapai-Apache Nation — were recently added to something called the Tribal Access Program. Chief Francis Bradley of the Hualapai Nation Police Department explains what that is.
The information available in these systems is important, and is used by other law enforcement agencies all the time. For example, when a police officer pulls someone over at a traffic stop, they ask for license and registration. Then they can run that information through databases to make sure that there are no warrants out for that person’s arrest or that the car isn’t stolen. But not all tribes have access to this.
Bradley, who’s also president of the Indian Country Intelligence Network in Arizona, which runs a separate information-sharing system, says the reason these tribes didn’t previously have access to this has to do with resources and support.
In adding the these tribes to the Tribal Access Program, the Justice Department says they allow the tribes to “more effectively serve and protect their communities by ensuring the exchange of critical data."
