Prince Albert Grand Council meets with Navajo Tribal Police to talk community policing

The Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC), which has been looking at creating its own policing system since 2018, recently got advice from the largest tribal police agency in the U.S.

Leaders from the 12 northern Saskatchewan First Nations within PAGC met with the Navajo Tribal Police in Chinle, Ariz., about 450 kilometres northeast of Phoenix.

PAGC Vice-Chief Joseph Tsannie said there was a good reason they chose to meet with the Navajo Tribal Police.

"Where I come from, the communities in northern Saskatchewan like Hatchet Lake and the northern part like Black Lake and Fond du Lac, they're Dene communities," he said.

"Certainly the Navajo, they're part of the Dene nation."

In the Navajo language, they call themselves Diné [the people], and Tsannie says there are similarities with Dene languages.

"We can understand one another and we have that connection with the Navajo Nation," he said.

Police live in the community

Tsannie says a core reason why it is important for First Nations communities to have their own policing has to do not only with language, but understanding the community as well.

"If you can relate to the challenges we have, the unique ways of dealing with certain situations in our community, you can de-escalate a lot of the problems or challenges that we have in our community," he said.

Sgt. Lucy Dan with the Navajo Police Training Academy assisted with the visit and worked with PAGC to plan the visit. She said one of the things the police force told the grand council about was how they implement tribal, state and federal laws with a focus on rehabilitation during and after incarceration.

"What they didn't know when they came is that we have our own judicial system, our own corrections centre and probation prosecutors," she said.

"Everything is available [in the community] as far as the policing portion."

Community — and how it can tie into justice — was also discussed.

"There's a difference in how our communities are policed compared to other agencies because the officers on the road, patrolling in our communities, they live in the community that they enforce," she said.

"It's not just their family but we have a clan system."