SD Police Academy Graduates Recently Attended Training on Indian Country/Public News Service

South Dakota’s police training program included a new course this year specifically aimed at tribal communities.

Yesterday, a class of 20 students graduated from the state law enforcement academy in Pierre, including eight officers from three tribes.

Previously, tribal police officers typically traveled to New Mexico to receive both basic training and instruction specific to Native communities. For the first time, state training this year included a course on criminal justice in Indian Country.

According to Attorney General Marty Jackley, law enforcement in the state has always maintained “strong relationships” with the various jurisdictions.

“The most important part of this training is that it builds and strengthens the relationships that already exist. And it keeps our chiefs closer to home.”

In the past, traveling to New Mexico for the 13-week training was a barrier for tribal leaders. The local class came about through a partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and funding approved by Gov. Kristi Noem, despite tensions this year between the governor and tribal leaders.

Jackley indicated he has included next year’s class in his budget for the 2025 legislative session.

“The governor has been very supportive of this class and we hope we can replicate this and have a class every year,” Jackley said.

The training was rolled out this spring after all nine tribes in the state banned the governor from their lands. The bans were largely a response to Noem’s inflammatory statements, including her assertion that tribal leaders “personally profit” from nearby drug cartels.

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North Carolina has not carried out an execution in 18 years, and advocates are urging Gov. Roy Cooper to commute all death sentences before he leaves office.

Noel Nickle, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, warned that the long pause could soon end, as it hinges on ongoing lawsuits under the Racial Justice Act and challenges to the lethal injection protocol.

“It is not a question of whether executions will resume in North Carolina, but when they will resume,” Nickle argued. “Given the current makeup of our state legislature and our state Supreme Court, we are confident that the two cases that have banned executions will go away.”

North Carolina currently has the fifth largest death row in the United States, with 136 people. The coalition has placed billboards in Raleigh to emphasize the urgency of commuting these death sentences to life in prison.

Nickle argued that abolishing the death penalty would be an important step toward a fairer justice system. She noted that history has shown that not everyone sentenced to death is guilty. In all, 12 people have been exonerated and released from death row in North Carolina. Nickle also pointed to racial disparities in the death penalty.

“Sixty percent of our death row is people of color and the demographics in North Carolina are 30 percent of our citizens are people of color,” Nickle outlined. “More than half of the people on death row were convicted by all-white or nearly all-white juries.”

Nickle also challenged misconceptions about the death penalty, arguing that it is neither fair nor cost-effective. She noted that some victims’ families have said executions do not bring healing or closure. Nickle also warned that resuming executions would have a significant emotional and financial impact on the justice system.

“If executions resume, imagine the strain and the trauma that would be placed on individuals, our state employees, who haven’t carried out an execution in 18 years,” Nickle said. “We know from other states that have resumed executions, it’s a tremendous strain on the system.”

Now that 23 states in the U.S. have abolished the death penalty, the group hopes North Carolina will join the growing number of states choosing to end the practice. The group will continue its advocacy efforts with a 136-mile walk on Sept. 26.

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Charleston City Council members have given the green light to a citizen-initiated citywide measure to reduce local penalties for certain marijuana possession offenses.

Bill 8039 eliminates fines and jail sentences for first-time possession of marijuana in small amounts. Currently, under state law, possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Corey Zinn, a community organizer for the group Charleston Can’t Wait, said the move is a positive step forward for the city.

“We guarantee that if you have no other drug offenses, and if you are arrested with 15 grams or less, you will not be fined or go to jail,” Zinn said.

According to Article 89 of the city charter, Charleston residents can bring measures to the ballot by means of a petition, an ordinance or an amendment with sufficient signatures. More than 4,000 residents signed the petition to reduce penalties for marijuana possession.

Zinn added that it was encouraging to hear lawmakers in the city recognize the harm to the community that comes with criminalizing marijuana. According to data from West Virginia University, more than 1,600 residents were arrested for marijuana possession or sale in 2021.

“It felt really powerful to hear those conversations and talk about racial inequities,” Zinn said.

Zinn believes the West Virginia city has little ability to change its drug policy because of the harsh penalties for drug possession.

“There’s still this message that this is still a crime, this is still something that you shouldn’t do, and I think a lot of people would agree that that’s not really the case,” Zinn noted. “If there’s no other crime being committed, then this shouldn’t be a problem.”

According to a survey released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center, an overwhelming majority of American adults, 88%, believe marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use.

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Police departments across the US have been struggling with a shortage of officers in recent years, but a new report shows how youth apprenticeship programs can help combat the trend.

Many police departments offer programs that include on-the-job training in addition to classroom instruction.

Benjamin Klosky, a former Urban Institute researcher and Fairfax County police officer, said he became interested because he didn’t want to go to college or join the military after high school and still needed to earn money.

“If you ask a police officer what they do, they’ll tell you it’s everything from marriage counselor to social worker to teacher to referee,” Klosky outlined. “They have to fill a lot of different roles, and not all of those roles are learned within the confines of the police academy.”

Klosky still had to go through a screening process, including a polygraph and background check. And he was able to do productive police work, such as helping run the warrants, processing evidence and performing maintenance, in addition to shadowing patrol shifts. He acknowledged that apprenticeships are expensive for departments, but that they can offer benefits such as increasing officer retention, saving money compared to academies and recruiting a more diverse workforce.

For example, many of Klosky’s fellow cadets spoke multiple languages ​​and came from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

“The other cadets were not people who would have otherwise gone to college and become police officers,” Klosky noted. “These are people from the communities that are under police surveillance who wanted to become police officers and had no other route to do so.”

Police hiring and retention have struggled since 2020 amid growing public distrust in policing and concerns about excessive force by officers. But the trend appears to be reversing for the first time since the pandemic, according to the Police Executive Research Forum.

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