'Native policing is community policing:' A glimpse into Indigenous police services in Alberta
Limited resources present a challenge
For Tristan Black Water, watching police officers at work was inspiring. So, once he was ready, he decided to join the services and was sworn in as a constable in 2022.
"Growing up in this community, I know that everybody is talented in their own way. Everybody has something to offer to this world. I love where I'm from," he said.
"For my community to have their own police service, it was always an interesting thing. I knew of police officers and kind of interacted with them and it was always nice to see a First Nations individual in the role of this authority, right?"
Black Water, who's from the Blood Tribe Police Service (BTPS) in Stand Off, Alta., says one of his priorities is to deal with a widespread issue that has affected many residents from the Kainai First Nation community.
"On the reserve, we do have a drug problem. They have everlasting effects on, not only the individual but you know, their family. It's tough to see that," Black Water said.
WATCH | Kainai is the largest First Nations reserve in Canada, but staffing and resources are a constant concern:
"My goal was to go out in the community and pretty much find the people that were selling these illicit drugs."
Black Water and his team worked on securing search warrants and hunted down a large number of drugs and weapons in a bid to keep the community safe.
The BTPS is one of 36 self-administered First Nations or Inuit police forces across the country — Alberta has three.
Unique challenges
While the police officers have a good rapport with locals in Stand Off and have earned respect in the close-knit community, they must deal with a unique set of challenges.
For instance, they have to make do with limited resources, according to BTPS chief Grant Buckskin.
"It's a big reserve, it's a large area. It's challenging especially when you're faced with a shortage of resources," he said.
"Our funding comes in the form of a tripartite agreement between the nation itself…along with the federal and provincial government. Our funding is substantially less than what an RCMP detachment would get for policing another reserve."
Lack of adequate benefits
It's especially difficult to retain experienced police officers, according to Buckskin, who said his team has lost seven officers since last September.
"We cannot offer the same benefits package or a pension package that, say, a Calgary or Edmonton can. We are making steps to, you know, address that," the police chief said before adding, "what I'd like to see for my service before I leave…I want my people to say, 'This [is the] Blood Tribe Police. You know this is the best and I'll put it up against anybody.'"
Meanwhile, Black Water is optimistic and grateful he gets to serve the community he was raised in — a fact that he says makes his job "a little bit easier."
"The Blackfoot people, we're very strong individuals and you know we have that saying, it's a Blackfoot term ika'kimaat and that it means to try hard," he said.
"That's what I would remind the community, ika'kimaat, try hard and keep going."
Establishing strong ties with the community
Members of the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service (TNPS) have a similar story to share.
"I think native policing is community policing," said Cpl. Tammy Dodginghorse.
"Being with my people, you know, and them having to depend on me and them coming to me and knowing that I can get the job done, that really helps on my job."
Dodginghorse, who has been with the TNPS for 28 years, hopes to continue working for at least three or four more years.
The police officer has built a solid relationship with members of the local community. For instance, she regularly checks in on seniors in the area to make sure they're safe, especially when it's cold outside.
"I have one elder. He loves his Sun paper, so I'll run and get a Sun paper for him and make sure that he doesn't have an excuse to go outside," she said.
Dodginghorse also ensures she's available to answer calls from members of the local community on her days off.
WATCH | The Tsuut'ina, west of Calgary, is one of just 36 First Nations in Canada with its own police service:
"There are no boundaries with my people," she said.
"If they're in trouble or if they need something, you know, at that very moment, that's important to them. So that has to be important to me as well."
According to TNPS chief, Keith Blake, serving on the force is more complicated than ever before.
"We have a population of 1.3, 1.4 million directly next door [in Calgary], which means that we have the potential for the criminality that exists in the large centre in an urban city that comes on to the nation," he said.
"What we're trying to do is to continue to be the cornerstone of a community center police service, yet having to respond to a higher increase of calls, the severity, the complexities that come and maintain that balance that I think every police service tries to maintain."
According to Blake, his team has to rely on an outdated funding model that isn't sustainable or equitable, making it difficult to determine what they need in the near future.
"It's very hard to compete in a very competitive a profession like policing and say our salaries are less, our pension is incredibly less, our health benefits, our medical benefits, our dental benefits are inferior, significantly inferior comparatively," he said.
"But what I also can say when it comes to the satisfaction or what the communities are saying is that there is a far greater desire to have a First Nation police service policing the community."
That said, funding and opportunities for Indigenous police forces still have a long way to go.
Hope for the future
Blake said that his team doesn't have access to specialty units like other services. Plus, they don't have legal support if they end up dealing with a disagreement over funding with the government.
"We are working towards an essential service legislation which will hopefully afford us to be predictable, dependable, comparable. Funding which allows us to have the opportunities that other police services take for granted in mainstream policing."
According to Lennard Busch, executive director of the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association, the First Nations and Inuit Policing program needs to be reexamined.
Busch said efforts are underway to make changes and adjust the current model.
"There's no way that you could just yank all the Indigenous police services without law and order collapsing in a large chunk of the country," Busch said.
"So we say we are here to stay and we want that reflected in legislation, we want to be enshrined in legislation, we want to be treated that way."
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With files from David Mercer