Unsolved violent crimes in Native American communities to get more attention with FBI surge
The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that the temporary duty assignments began immediately and will rotate every 90 days in field offices that include Albuquerque, Phoenix, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Portland, Oregon, and Jackson, Mississippi.
The FBI will be working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, tribal authorities and federal prosecutors in each of the states.
'Crime rates in American Indian and Alaska Native communities are unacceptably high,' U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. 'By surging FBI resources and collaborating closely with U.S. attorneys and tribal law enforcement to prosecute cases, the Department of Justice will help deliver the accountability that these communities deserve.'
Work to address the decades-long crisis stretches back to President Donald Trump 's first term, when he established a special task force aimed at curbing the high rate of killings and disappearances among Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
President Joe Biden issued his own executive order on public safety in 2021, and then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched efforts to implement the Not Invisible Act, charging a federal commission with finding ways to improve how the government responded to Indian Country cases. Public meetings were held around the country as part of the effort.
In 2023, the Justice Department established its Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons outreach program, dispatching more attorneys and coordinators to certain regions to help with unsolved cases.
In past years, the FBI's Operation Not Forgotten had deployed about 50 people. This year, it's 60.
According to federal authorities, the FBI's Indian Country program had 4,300 open investigations at the beginning of the fiscal year. That included more than 900 death investigations, 1,000 child abuse investigations, and more than 500 domestic violence and adult sexual abuse cases.
The operation in the past two years has supported more than 500 investigations, leading to the recovery of 10 children who were victims and the arrests of more than 50 suspects.
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