High crime rates on some Indian reservations have long been a public concern, especially to the Native American community at large. The Department of the Interior’s (Interior) pilot program to reduce crime on Indian reservations demonstrates how transformative it can be when an agency adopts a goal that matters to a community, takes actions to address the problem, regularly measures and reviews relevant data to see if change is happening, and engages the local community in every aspect of the effort. To seek solutions to this long-standing issue – but given tough constraints on its budget – Interior started a pilot program to test and identify effective crime reduction strategies on Indian lands. In the 2011 Budget, Interior set an agency Priority Performance Goal to reduce crime during FY 2010 and 2011 by at least 5 percent on four reservations with some of the highest crime rates.

When this goal was set, most considered it ambitious; Interior had never before adopted a crime reduction goal and does not control many of the factors that affect the crime rate. Interior overcame obstacles, such as delays in staffing, by detailing law enforcement officers from multiple bureaus and undertook a concerted effort to expedite training, the purchase of equipment and vehicles, and finding housing for officers in remote areas. Nevertheless, by the end of 2011, the initiative far exceeded its goal, reducing violent crime, on average, by a remarkable 35 percent across all four reservations, with crime going down on three of the four in the first two years. They have continued to make progress – by the end of 2012 there was a 55 percent overall reduction in violent crime incidents across the initial four tribal communities, each of which has now seen a double digit decrease in violent crime after 36 months.

The importance and resonance of the goal won the cooperation of law enforcement partners and the enthusiasm of the local communities. This enabled a comprehensive strategy that involved community policing, tactical deployment, and interagency and intergovernmental partnerships. The number of Indian country officers on the ground at these four reservations increased significantly, and the number of law enforcement officers who received basic training increased ten-fold. Interior also supported officer-initiated programs to help victims and their families along with programs to strengthen community relationships with law enforcement. Community-launched innovations also played a role, such as an initiative on Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana to reduce juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior. Recognizing the importance of fresh and actionable data, Interior has now established a computer-aided system to help analyze crime data, identify crime trends, and report criminal offenses. These data and trend analyses were used to allocate resources and to evaluate law enforcement and community policing strategies.

The results strongly affirm the value of a data-based, goal-oriented approach that empowers local officials to drive change. As of the end of 2013, the strategy employed with this Priority Goal had been effective, achieving an overall 38% reduction in violent crime incidents in four tribal communities with long-standing community policing programs and a reduction of 8% in one of two new communities.

More information on Interior’s Indian crime goal is available here.