Tribal policing on American Indian reservations

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical examination of the characteristics of Indian reservation police agencies at the start of the twenty-first century. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses national data on tribal police agencies from the 2000 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies and from the 2002 Census of Tribal Justice Agencies (both conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics). Findings - The analysis presented documents both common and distinctive trends in Indian Country policing, and compares tribal police agencies on reservations with non-Indian police organizations generally. Originality/value - The paper provides an empirical reference point for assessing future changes and developments in this mostly undocumented form of US policing.