White Earth Tribal Police Fighting Back Against Heroin, Gang Influx

Tribal police say their community doesn’t trust them and didn’t even before their department was created.

They’re especially worried because like Fargo, they’re seeing gang activity on the rise along with heroin use.

Here’s one of the problem spots in the community the old Circle of Life school.

It’s set for demolition soon and it’s turned into a gathering place for vandals.

You can see the gang tags on it.

Tribal police have stepped up their patrols there as well as in neighborhoods where they’ve seen drug dealing and other increased crime.

They’re also launching programs like mentorship for truant kids, pregnant moms getting off heroin and having officers get involved in coaching kids’ sports.

“Some of the people, in some of the villages, I don’t want to call them bad people. But when there are problems, they don’t want to call police. A small percentage want to handle it themselves,” said White Earth Tribal Police Chief Mike LaRoque.

Next month, police are starting a series of meetings in the villages to let people know about the new programs, including a new law that lets them civilly commit addicted family members on or off the reservation.

We’ll be following this developing story and showing you how the programs are working, or not…so stay tuned.