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“The U.S. Justice Department does not adequately collect or use crime statistics from Native American tribes, a problem that has left the department with stale and “virtually useless” crime data, according to a new internal watchdog report released on Thursday.
The finding, by the department’s inspector general, is one of a number of flaws identified in how the government has executed its legal requirements under the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act.
That law requires the Justice Department to provide legal and investigative assistance to tribes and to collect data about crimes committed in American Indian country, which comprises 567 federally recognized tribal lands. The law was enacted in response to high rates of violent crime documented back in 2002.
But in the seven years since the law was passed, the inspector general found, little progress has been made.
The department and its investigative components, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, “still lack a coordinated approach to overseeing the assistance it provides in Indian country,” the report says.
“Further, the department has not prioritized assistance to Indian country at the level consistent with its public statements or annual reports to Congress.”
The law, for instance, requires the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics to collect crime data. However, to date, its data collection and reporting efforts are “still in development.””
– Rueters, Crime data in Native American tribal lands ‘virtually useless’: watchdog.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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