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In Touch with Tennessee
In Touch with Tennessee
Addressing MMIP Cases: Sharpening the Skills of Tribal Law Enforcement
Join us as we discuss innovative programs initiated by the Law Enforcement Innovation Center and the Center for Human Identification, which aim to equip tribal law enforcement with the necessary tools and training to address MMIP cases more effectively. Hear firsthand accounts from experts in the field who share their insights on building stronger investigative methodologies, networking across agencies, and fostering community engagement.
Native American and Alaska Native tribes suffer from a disproportionate number of unresolved missing or murdered Indigenous persons cases. The fact that so many of these cases remain unsolved only adds to the adverse effects on survivors, family members and tribal communities. Often, the lack of resolution in these cases is a result of challenges facing tribal law enforcement agencies in their investigations. The Law Enforcement Innovation Center, or LEIC, and the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth recently completed a US Department of Justice community-oriented policing services project that focused on building the capacity of tribal law enforcement agencies to investigate these cases. Hi and welcome to In Touch with Tennessee, a podcast of the UT Institute for Public Service. Joining us today to talk about this program are LEIC Program Manager, jeff Lindsay, and the Center for Human Identification Director, mark Pooley. Thank you both for being here with us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Susan.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Susan, for the invite.
Speaker 1:So, Jeff, tell us how this partnership came about.
Speaker 2:The Department of Justice COPS Office the Community Oriented Policing Services Office initiated this project as a way of addressing the problem that long-term unsolved missing or murdered indigenous persons cases, also known as MMIP cases had on the adverse impact that those cases had on tribal communities. The COPS office recognized that among the many challenges that were inherent in these cases the unresolved cases was that the lack of capacity that many of the tribal law enforcement agencies had to address these investigations. The Center for Human Identification was a natural place to start, based on the work that they do in the DNA and human identification field, and the COPS office believed that LEIC would be a good partner, based on our history of providing high quality forensic and investigative training.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this question is for both of you. Please talk about the need for such a program.
Speaker 3:You know, Jeff, if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and start.
Speaker 2:Oh no, please mark it.
Speaker 3:I think you know, in Indian country there's 574 federally recognized tribes, and all tribes were all different. I mean, we had different languages, different customs, even the region that we live in. We're all different, and so because of that that's one of the challenges that sometimes are not taken into account are not taken into account and a lot of our reservations. They're very rural and they may not have the infrastructure and definitely they don't have the funding to do I hate to say this, but to do proper investigations, even though they want to, they just don't have the resources to do that. And so the need is definitely there for more training, for more education on how we could bring some of the best practices to the tribal communities to help address these investigations for MMIP cases.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I would assume a lot of these departments are very small as well as far as staffing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, one of the things that I loved about this is the things that we shared with them that they're all free and they're actually able to use right away in their investigation. So I know a lot of the agencies and the participants. They really love that aspect of this program. But, yeah, you're right, the resources are lacking Personnel we just don't have them, and so any kind of outreach that we were able to provide was only a great support for them.
Speaker 1:Okay, tell us, and both of you can chime in on this one, but tell us a little bit about more, about the program, and I understand there were two phases to the project.
Speaker 2:There were two distinct phases. The first phase was researching the problem and assessing the best way that the project team could support these tribal law enforcement agencies with their unresolved MIP cases, with their unresolved MMIP cases, and one of the things that we endeavored to do from the beginning was to approach the issue in a trauma-informed way and also take a look at the holistic approach to addressing these cases, because it goes beyond just the investigators themselves. There are several stakeholders in these cases to include the family members, community representatives, and we really wanted to broaden the impact to help everyone that has been impacted in an MMIP case. In that first phase, though, we also were tasked with producing a guidebook that would assist the tribal investigators with protocols and suggestions on how to review, prioritize and reengage these cases, especially the ones that these cases. We tried to address it in a way that could re-energize them and assist Closure is not the right word, but the successful conclusion in the case in terms of being able to close it properly being able to close it properly and so we ultimately developed a guidebook titled Unresolved Cases a review of protocols and resources for supporting investigations involving American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Speaker 2:So that guidebook is available from the COPS office website, both in hard copy and in PDF formats. The second phase focused on the on-site training and technical assistance events that we conducted on several locations on-site, and I'll let Mark go into those a little bit.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah thank you.
Speaker 3:Jeff, you know one of the things is I wasn't particularly a part of the first phase. I know a lot of my colleagues were putting that booklet together, but it's a good read. I recommend others to look at it, not just for missing indigenous person cases, but any missing person case. I think those fundamental things that are brought up and taught will be beneficial for any law enforcement agency to follow be beneficial for any law enforcement agency to follow. But yeah, as for the second phase of having the meeting with the tribal organizations, what I, jeff and I, as we were talking, we wanted to make the best impact we could in Indian country, and so I know when I first started the program, we were focusing on one particular tribe at a time. But as we started to do the trainings, we saw that the greater outreach would if we made it more of a regional approach, and that's what we did. We started to. We had a lot of agencies that would sponsor the program where we would actually use their network, their resources to spread the word out about the training.
Speaker 3:And then we started to get this was the exciting part is a lot of times we think that the tribal agencies are the only ones dealing with this. But it's not. It's the city police departments, the state DPS, it's the federal agencies. Everyone has a stake in this, and what I enjoyed was if they had cases that had missing indigenous persons, a lot of the detectives or agents would come federal, state and local partners.
Speaker 3:And that's I think was one of the beneficial things was a lot of times the tribal detectives.
Speaker 3:They for the first time were able to talk to a state or a federal partner on these cases, and so I think the networking was something that we didn't anticipate but was a great resource for the participants. But then also, as we started to learn more from them, we started to see who are the other stakeholders that have an interest and a possible resource for these MMIP cases. And that's where we got into the Victims, advocate, social Services and even some other outreach groups that focus on MMIP cases. So I don't know, as the program developed, it was always developing cases. So I don't know, as the program developed, it was always developing and we would build upon the strengths and see some of the weaknesses, how we could fill those gaps. But at the end of the day, I think the training people that participated were given more confidence of yeah, I didn't know we could do this, but not only how we did this, but who do we include to help get these resources to be a part of our investigations?
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, just piggybacking on Mark's comment there. You know one of the highlights of what we call the training and technical assistance events, the on-site events one of the highlights was having the robust participation of the governmental and nonprofit organizations that do a lot of work in the MMIP arena in terms of investigating cases, and many of these organizations that we contacted generously sent people to these events to provide information and, more importantly, to network, like Mark indicated, with the investigators, the analysts and the victim specialists, victim coordinators at the events, and we've received a lot of feedback about how important that was and we've received a lot of feedback about how important that was. So getting the basic information out as to the resources and support that was available to the tribal agencies was important.
Speaker 2:Representatives to interact with one another, but to also make contacts and network with the organizations that could provide them free support or ongoing analytical support or support with helping with victims' families and just tribal agencies across the board. We even had a Canadian First Nation Police Service participate and discuss ways that the Canadian Indigenous law enforcement agencies approach their unresolved MIP cases.
Speaker 1:Okay, talk about the on-site training events. How many were there?
Speaker 3:Go ahead. Jeff, you want to talk about the numbers for the trainings that we put on.
Speaker 2:Sure, we had a total of six on-site events and then we had one additional event that we participated in in Reno and that was the American Indian Justice Conference, where we presented information about the project in order to make attendees at that conference aware and to elicit their support, as well as to engage folks in the future training and technical assistance events, or TTA events. So the first two, as Mark indicated, were focused primarily on individual tribes, were focused primarily on individual tribes, and we realized that as much of an impact as we believed that we were making at that point, it wasn't as broad of an impact as we really would like to have done. So the remaining four events that we did included several different tribal organizations investigators, analysts, the victims, specialists, advocates, as well as those state and local agencies that investigate cases, plus the state and local agencies that provide resources to the tribal agencies in their investigations.
Speaker 1:That provide resources to the tribal agencies in their investigations. Okay, can you and this again is for both of you talk a little bit about, maybe give a general overview of the type of curriculum in the on-site training? I mean, how deep did you go into the forensic training part? You know what were some of the other topics talked about.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll let Mark go first, because DNA and other investigative support applications are really the specialty of the Center for Human Identification. Then I could go into a little bit about what LEIC did.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that sounds perfect. You know, one of the things is, you know both Jeff and I, we're retired law enforcement, so we've done cases like these and so we are able to bring a lot of our own knowledge and understanding of how a case should be done. You know, jeff and I, we both come from departments that had the resources to do this, but as you start to work in Indian country, you realize very quickly there is no resources, and so that's one of the things I think that was impactful from the workbook and the things that were presented is for these agencies, primarily tribal. Now they're able to use resources that are available to them right away. And one of the things that our center, the Center for Human Identification, primarily talked about was, as part of forensics, is the DNA aspect of it. We had Dr Kobol, who's our executive director. He went really in-depth as we could of how DNA works, but not only that. It's how CODIS works Combined DNA Index System and how we utilize and work with medical examiners to get unidentified human remains sent to us to make, for us to make a profile put into CODIS, and then we show law enforcement agencies how important and crucial they are in the second part of forensics that is, the collection of family reference samples, where they have to already have the relationship with the families of the missing, collect their buckle swabs, send it to our lab and we're able to put it into CODIS where we hope that we're getting associations.
Speaker 3:And you know, I tell people, the participants I said you know, when you do an investigation you have to start early and you have to use the resources that are at your fingertips right away. But there'll come a point where in the investigation you'll come to I call it an impasse where we as an investigator or a law enforcement agency has exhausted all of our resources and we come to that impasse and we're like we don't know what else to do. That's where forensics, primarily DNA, comes into play. I tell people that DNA is the last thing that law enforcement has to rely on for their investigation after they've exhausted all their previous resources. So we went quite a bit into the forensic part and it's not that we just taught them, but we said this is how you're part of it and one of those things you know I hope I'm not going off too off script, but what I have found in the work of what I just explained, of using CODIS, using family reference samples and UHR samples is I'm found in the work of what I just explained of using CODIS, using family reference samples and UHR samples, is I'm working with the tribe.
Speaker 3:In fact, this particular tribal agency went to the training and they heard it from Dr Kobold, jeff, myself and our colleagues and they actually implemented collecting family reference samples. And one of the things is, when they first started to implement it, they were very skeptical, saying, mark, families aren't going to give their DNA. And they were wrong. The families actually willingly, voluntarily, gave their DNA.
Speaker 3:But this is what I was told by several of those agents.
Speaker 3:They said, mark, we didn't think this would happen, but collecting DNA has now bridged a gap between the community and our agency.
Speaker 3:It was beautiful, it was actually beautiful, and one of the things that they said they said now, instead of it being a contentious call from a family, of it being a contentious call from a family, it's now they ask Detective so-and-so or Agent so-and-so, have we got an association in CODIS? Have we gotten a match? And it's not a confrontational call, it's, you know, at this time we don't have anything, but we're still hoping and waiting. And it opens a dialogue, but we're still hoping and waiting and it opens a dialogue, and so this is the thing about our program is the things that were shared is now more resources for the agents, the detectives, to bring to the family to show them. This is what we've done and this is what we are continually doing, but that's sort of the forensic part I'll let Jeff finish it of the agencies or organizations that we're a part of, because I think they're very integral part of the in-between of beginning of an investigation.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So part of our strategy in the project was not only to assist these tribal law enforcement agencies where they're currently unresolved cases, but to provide them with the information and connections to resources that would shorten the time that their current and future cases would be unresolved. Best practices, emerging practices. And one of the emerging best practice that stood out across several organizations that worked cold cases or unresolved cases not necessarily the MMIP cases, but just unresolved cases in general was that one of the best ways that you can keep a case from being unresolved is to work it as correctly as possible from the beginning. You know to include the forensic component as well as the more person-to-person investigative component.
Speaker 2:So I think that was one of the benefits too, in that, moving forward, a lot of these participants could modify or adjust or some case tweak or even validate their already ongoing investigative practices in the MMIP field. From the LEIC's perspective, one of the things that our team members Jason Jones and Tim Shade offered were practical suggestions on obtaining hard-to-get evidence. You know, one example is getting fingerprints from decomposing human remains. So they discussed some techniques that they could apply to that effort and then re-examining previously collected evidence in light of the advances that have been made in forensic science. So there are tests that are available now or ways of analyzing evidence now that weren't available 5, 10, 20, 25 years ago, that now can be utilized to help get these unresolved cases to a solved status.
Speaker 1:Okay, so out of the on-site trainings, I mean, how many different tribes were represented with law enforcement agencies?
Speaker 3:You know I believe there were 26 tribal agencies that participated in those, the trainings that were put on, the trainings that were put on Primarily, we had, I guess, the tribes that came from Arizona, new Mexico and Oklahoma. All three of those states have very high populations of indigenous populations and so I think the program and our networking, when we started to look at where was the need and what agencies would want to get this training, those were the three states that we found really good opportunities for this program to be presented.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I know you talked about. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that, just amplifying what Mark said, was that we had the 26 agencies, that we had even an agency from Idaho. We had, you know, representatives from Colorado, so I mean it was more widespread than those states, although those were the states of focus. States of focus and many of the agencies participated in several of the events by attending, by sending attendants, you know, to one event, for example in Phoenix, and then also sending another tribal investigator or representative to the onsite. That we did in the Santa Fe region.
Speaker 1:And I know you all mentioned the networking that everyone was pleased with. You know they got to know people from other agencies. What were some of the other responses of the participants?
Speaker 3:Mark, yeah, you know what, from the feedback that we got the participants they talked about there were several benefits, but the thing that got me most excited is the relevancy. The things that we brought and we talked about were relevant and they were able to use them. In fact, I know Jeff and I, after the trainings were done, we still got questions and in fact I still have a couple participants that have reached out to me since then multiple times to ask questions about these cases and what direction or what other resources that we could provide for them, just by what we shared in the training. So there were just a lot of. The response was great and I don't remember it ever being contentious or questions of well, we can't do that. It was always positive and you know, I've been to a lot of law enforcement trainings as a participant and there's always one or two things that stick out that you do apply.
Speaker 3:You may not apply all of them, but you may apply one or two out of the 15 presented, and I think that was done in this case, where a lot of stuff was relevant. But how you really know is when you get follow-up, when they actually use these resources in their cases. Now, because I had the fortunate ability to work for the Center for Human Identification and we have another program that we're utilizing. There's several agencies a good dozen that are actually using our DNA services for this different program, but I know it's working because we're actually identifying long-term cases, some that have been decades old, some that have been decades old, and so that's something that we were not really able to quantify, saying, hey, this is a success.
Speaker 2:But me actually seeing it after this program is over and still having those relationships. I know it was, I know it was successful, Right. And I'd like to highlight something too, in that Mark is a Native American, so he's got a unique perspective on these cases from you know, both cultural as and um mark.
Speaker 1:Did you um ever work for any of the um or a, a tribal law enforcement um department or no?
Speaker 3:no, I I I didn't work in law enforcement I, so my tribal affiliations is navajo and Hopi Navajo they say the name, but I worked for a city agency in Arizona, the Tempe Police Department.
Speaker 3:It was a midsize police department and I said this a little bit earlier, but I came from a department that had the resources, the technology to do proper investigations, and so it was eye-opening for me as I started to work with tribal agencies that don't have those resources and technology. Now I did work with another tribe as a tribal prosecutor prior to becoming law enforcement, and I've worked and lived in tribal communities. So I know how tribal agencies and communities work and I think that was a very beneficial as we went and presented to the tribal law enforcement. Because I work in these communities, I know what we have and what we don't have as a people, but at the end of the day, as a people, but at the end of the day, what I, what I find very exciting is all, if not all, our participants. They've truly had a great interest in this MMIP space. They didn't they weren't a voluntold to come to these. They all voluntarily came to make an effort to learn more for our people.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, have there been any discussions on another year, adding another year, another couple of years of this type of training?
Speaker 2:Well, at the end of the project, one of the deliverables that we had was not only a synopsis of the project and the progress made and recommendations for improving the model that we use or the model that evolved throughout the project, and one of the things that we got a considerable amount of feedback from the participants was about continuing this project or doing more of this type of connection-building presentations, information-delivering presentations in the MMIP field. So we made the recommendation to the COPS office to either revamp or restart, you know, or you know, set up another project that is similar to this, that can address those needs, and that is one of the recommendations that you know we could make with a lot of validity in the sense that the participants were asking for that, and it pretty much is up to the COPS office right now in terms of them making that reinvestment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and if I could add to that, susan, you know one of the things that this program actually started in 2020 because of COVID and other things, there were extensions. But what I loved about this is the COPS office. They actually had the foresight of saying, hey, what is the need across the nation, like, what are some things that we could address, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People movement was one of them, and so I really want to thank the COPS office for having that foresight and the ability for us to put it out there. I'm hoping the Department of Justice, which the COPS office falls under, that they continue to do great things for my native people, because we do need the guidance and the best practices to help our missing people from stop going missing, and that's honest truth. That's coming from a personal perspective as an indigenous person. I think that it will continue. I don't know what that capacity will look like, but I believe that other things will come from this.
Speaker 2:And we had an exceptional program manager at the COPS office. Matt Lisakowski was very involved and very engaged and I know that his heart was in this particular project as well. So, to the degree that he can influence and obtain a continuation of this program or again a similar program I know that Matt is very well invested in that.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, hopefully we can talk about this in the future. We'll see Well, thank you both for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
