Navajo police to train new officers

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

TOYEI — Of the 33 new cadets who will begin their 20-week class on Monday, about half can expect to help fill some 30 vacancies in the Navajo Nation Public Safety Division's Law Enforcement Department which has about half the U.S. average of officers per 1,000 people.

Of the 296 authorized commissioned positions, 264 are filled and 32 are empty, including three vacancies among the command staff of 16 lieutenants, captains and the chief, Dorothy Fulton.

With only 251 commissioned officers and sergeants actually on patrol, there are 29 vacancies spread among the seven districts, the headquarters staff and the Navajo Law Enforcement Training Academy. NLETA is located at Toyei in a former BIA boarding school, near the Hopi border, in the Steamboat Chapter.

The U.S. average is three patrol officers per 1,000 people, Fulton said. Including about 42 commissioned detectives (many are lieutenants and captains) in the Criminal Investigations Department, that means 335 officers for a population recently estimated to be 191,000. This equals a single tribal officer for 570 people instead of about 1.6 officers for those same 570 people.

With 191,000 people, there should be about 575 commissioned officers in the field, so the tribe is short around 240 officers.

Fulton's forces gained 10 of the 12 to graduate from the last NLETA class in January, with 40 percent of them women, putting America's largest reservation police department far ahead of the national average. The chief said the Dine' department already exceeded the U.S. average of 17 percent by 1 percent.

Graduates of the latest class (and the precincts to which they are assigned) include Christine L. Bedonie and Carolyn J. Secody (Tuba City), Rose A. Jeffy (Chinle), Michelle T. Lowman (Window Rock), Ivan L. Gishie and Roderick R. Whitewater (Tuba City), Michael R. Hale (Chinle), Jamie Hernandez-Gomez (Shiprock), Andre E. Leonard (Dilkon).

Joining the tribal Resource Rangers is Leo K. Hoskie, with Marty Paxson going to the White Mountain Apache Tribe's department on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.

The new class will be a week longer than past ones because evaluations of the program showed more time needed to be spent on firearms and the law, from the U.S. Constitution, to search and seizure, to protecting evidence at a crime scene to Miranda Rights situations.

Graduates will undergo the strenuous physical workouts, classroom instruction and field training from March 17 through Aug. 1. It then takes time to process them through the tribal personnel system and get them moved into their districts.

The chief said she is deeply appreciative of the partnership with the tribal Work Force Development Department whose $649,000 grant will pay most of the cost of the new class.

"It costs about $400,000 per class, minus the salaries of the staff, the cadets and consultants," she said. Each cadet class averages about 30 students at the start. The latest graduating class began with 22 applicants showing up.

Fulton said many realize early in the class that police work isn't, after all, to be their career, so about half drop out.

NLETA schools last longer than other police academies because they require cadets to pass the standards of four agencies for certification as commissioned peace officers the U.S. government, the Navajo Nation, the state of Arizona and the state of New Mexico.

The acting academy commander is Sergeant Darren Simeona.

Vacancies listed

Headquarters has eight positions with one vacant. Chinle has 39, with three vacant. Crownpoint has 46 positions with seven vacant. Dilkon has 25 positions with one vacant quite a turnaround since the precinct was down at one time to eight officers in the field. Kayenta has 35 positions with three vacant. Tuba City has 42 positions with three vacant. Shiprock has 44 positions with three vacant. Window Rock has 48 positions with eight vacant. The academy has six positions with one vacant.

However, other than Fulton, the only female commander is Lieutenant Ronni Wauneka, of the Dilkon precinct who also has been the assistant commander of the Chinle precinct and the headquarters administrative lieutenant.

That should change within a few years as more and more female officers achieve the sergeant's rank, qualifying them to apply for lieutenants' vacancies as they occur. And the gender equalization should be increased with the elevation of the commander's position in the Kayenta precinct from a lieutenant to a captain, plus some recent promotions and retirements.

The chief said she hopes to be able to fill the Kayenta commander's position within about a month. Currently the precinct commander is Lt. Kee Thinn.

In the Window Rock precinct, Captain D.K. Thomas and Lt. Wallace Yazzie have two new sergeants, Henry Moore and Irene Six, with about 13 and 15 years with the department, respectively.

Another sergeant, Wilson Tsosie of the Chinle precinct, will retire March 28, Fulton said.