Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 2, 2006 1:21:20 GMT -5
Reservations part of DUI squeeze
By JARED MILLER
www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20051229/NEWS01/512290308/1002
FORT PECK RESERVATION —If you drink and drive on one of Montana's
Indian reservations this New Year's, you could bring home an unwanted
party favor — a DUI.
Reservation police across Montana and the nation are ratcheting up
roadway law enforcement in advance of the annual spike in impaired
drivers.
Four Montana reservations, including Rocky Boy's and Fort Peck on the
Hi-Line, are increasing patrols as part of "Don't Shatter the Dream,"
a new program sponsored by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
About 100 tribes in 32 states are taking part in the initiative,
which uses Indian Highway Safety Program funds to pay for officer
overtime and a coordinated attack on tipsy drivers.
The program runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2 and augments two national
safe driving programs: the "Click it or Ticket" program that takes
place in May each year, and the "You Drink and Drive You Lose"
initiative in August.
"Don't Shatter the Dream" is a little different because it
specifically targets the need to reduce drunken driving in Indian
Country, said Trent Standing Rock, a law enforcement liaison and
highway safety specialist for the BIA in Albuquerque, N.M.
"We do plan on making this an annual thing," Standing Rock said.
This season also marks the kickoff of a new DUI task force on the
Rocky Boy's, Fort Peck and Crow reservations.
The group, which calls itself the American Indian Law Enforcement
Services DUI Task Force of Montana, is forming to help tribal police
get the upper hand on DUIs, said Capt. Jim Summers of the Fort Peck
Tribes Department of Law and Justice.
Police on each reservation are tackling DUIs in their own way this
holiday season.
Rocky Boy's Reservation police used highway checkpoints
and "saturation patrols" of extra officers on Christmas Day.
Residents there can expect more of the same on New Year's Eve.
"It's a time we'd like to spend with our families, but our job
entails us to be out there on the roadways to make it safe for the
people who drive it," said Sgt. Allen Parisian of the Rocky Boy's
Police Department.
The Fort Peck Tribes are taking a similar approach.
"We're in the process of getting things ready with checkpoints and
saturation patrols to help lower drunk driving in our jurisdiction,"
Summers said.
On the Blackfeet Reservation, BIA police will establish DUI
checkpoints in the Browning and East Glacier Park areas Dec. 31.
The entire BIA law enforcement staff in Browning will be on patrol
that night, with assistance from Glacier County authorities and the
Montana Highway Patrol, said Special Agent Leona Broncho.
The Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations are the other two places
in Montana participating in the federal "Don't Shatter the Dream"
program.
By JARED MILLER
www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20051229/NEWS01/512290308/1002
FORT PECK RESERVATION —If you drink and drive on one of Montana's
Indian reservations this New Year's, you could bring home an unwanted
party favor — a DUI.
Reservation police across Montana and the nation are ratcheting up
roadway law enforcement in advance of the annual spike in impaired
drivers.
Four Montana reservations, including Rocky Boy's and Fort Peck on the
Hi-Line, are increasing patrols as part of "Don't Shatter the Dream,"
a new program sponsored by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
About 100 tribes in 32 states are taking part in the initiative,
which uses Indian Highway Safety Program funds to pay for officer
overtime and a coordinated attack on tipsy drivers.
The program runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2 and augments two national
safe driving programs: the "Click it or Ticket" program that takes
place in May each year, and the "You Drink and Drive You Lose"
initiative in August.
"Don't Shatter the Dream" is a little different because it
specifically targets the need to reduce drunken driving in Indian
Country, said Trent Standing Rock, a law enforcement liaison and
highway safety specialist for the BIA in Albuquerque, N.M.
"We do plan on making this an annual thing," Standing Rock said.
This season also marks the kickoff of a new DUI task force on the
Rocky Boy's, Fort Peck and Crow reservations.
The group, which calls itself the American Indian Law Enforcement
Services DUI Task Force of Montana, is forming to help tribal police
get the upper hand on DUIs, said Capt. Jim Summers of the Fort Peck
Tribes Department of Law and Justice.
Police on each reservation are tackling DUIs in their own way this
holiday season.
Rocky Boy's Reservation police used highway checkpoints
and "saturation patrols" of extra officers on Christmas Day.
Residents there can expect more of the same on New Year's Eve.
"It's a time we'd like to spend with our families, but our job
entails us to be out there on the roadways to make it safe for the
people who drive it," said Sgt. Allen Parisian of the Rocky Boy's
Police Department.
The Fort Peck Tribes are taking a similar approach.
"We're in the process of getting things ready with checkpoints and
saturation patrols to help lower drunk driving in our jurisdiction,"
Summers said.
On the Blackfeet Reservation, BIA police will establish DUI
checkpoints in the Browning and East Glacier Park areas Dec. 31.
The entire BIA law enforcement staff in Browning will be on patrol
that night, with assistance from Glacier County authorities and the
Montana Highway Patrol, said Special Agent Leona Broncho.
The Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations are the other two places
in Montana participating in the federal "Don't Shatter the Dream"
program.