Tribe: N. Idaho county reneging on arrest powers

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A county sheriff in northern Idaho has reneged on a deal to give authority to Coeur d'Alene Tribe police officers to arrest non-tribal members on the reservation, the tribe said Wednesday.

Benewah County made more than 50 changes to the
cross-deputization pact that Sheriff Bob Kirts agreed to this year
under threat of lawmaker intervention, said Tribe Chairman Chief
Allan in a statement.

“I am extremely disappointed with this new document,” Allan said. “It is not what we agreed to.”

Idaho lawmakers in March delayed voting on a bill that would give Indian tribal police arrest powers without permission from the local sheriff. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe pushed the bill, arguing that tribal police need arrest powers because county deputies don't respond to calls for help with non-tribal members on the reservation.

The House Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on the measure in March to give the tribe and the sheriff more time to resolve a dispute that has worsened since a cross-deputization pact fell apart three years ago.

Kirts, under threat of losing his say in whom tribal officers could arrest, reached an agreement with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe a week later. Mike Kane, an attorney for the Idaho Sheriff's Association, assured lawmakers that elected officials would sign off on the pact, which the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Council did the following day.

Benewah County officials sent the tribe a copy of the agreement, with their changes, earlier this week.

“Disappointed isn't even the word, I thought we had a deal,” said Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake. “They spent five days working on it, everybody was happy ... it's remarkable, all the sudden now they're saying they didn't agree to it.”

Benewah County Prosecutor Doug Payne said changes to the agreement were minor, but one involved a critical concession by the tribe to no longer resolve non-tribal members infractions like speeding tickets in tribal court.

“That's been the problem all along,” Payne said.

During negotiations, Payne said the tribe agreed to cease trying non-tribal person in tribal court except for offenses on Coeur d'Alene Lake and even then, only if the person who was cited agreed to tribal court proceedings.

The provision was a deal breaker and wasn't fully spelled out in the agreement in which the tribe agreed that a non-American Indian charged or cited with a violation of state or county criminal law would be tried in state court, Payne said.

The language did not include non-Indians charged or cited with violation of tribal law, and county officials altered the document to include all types of criminal law, Payne said.

Tribe spokesman Marc Stewart said the agreement is the same one that county officials agreed to during the 2010 Idaho Legislature, and they have since altered nearly every contentious material provision in the document, including jurisdiction, the definitions of peace officers, law enforcement on the lake, waivers of immunity and liability issues.

“The tribe had a deal, and now Benewah County is changing it and saying it is not a big deal,” Stewart said.