By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The EBCI Police Commission met on Thursday, Feb. 9 to discuss recent developments in the community and law enforcement.
A theme throughout the meeting was reporting and how to properly disseminate information. Part of this discussion involved the Cherokee Indian Police Department and the potential hiring a public information officer (PIO). Cherokee Police Chief Carla Neadeau was amongst the guests at the meeting. When asked if the Police Department was considering hiring a PIO, Neadeau said that the department was working on the details of the job description for that position.
Conversation around the value of public information continued with Vice Chairperson Buddy Johnson.
“I saw where there were some juveniles that walked off from the school and were missing, for lack of a better word. Then I saw where a report came back out and said ‘found’. To me, that’s an interactive kind of thing that looks really good for the PD, the Commission, and the Tribe. Public information and transparency and sharing with the community, I like that,” said Johnson.
This reporter offered a comment to the Commission, stating that the Cherokee One Feather wants to do whatever it can to assist in searches and releases such as these. Given that motivation, the newspaper wishes it was notified when there are missing people in the community, especially juveniles. The CIPD will often post reports regarding missing persons and the paper is rarely notified of these situations. Police Chief Neadeau wished to respond to this comment.
“According to Code, we don’t have to send out things to be published. They’re actually supposed to request it, and then we can give them the information that is requested. So, it’s not required of us to have to report to everybody. That’s one of the reasons we try to get stuff posted to the Facebook page,” said Neadeau.
Chairperson Tunney Crowe offered his perspective on the conversation, saying it can be difficult to release information regarding ongoing investigations.
“I think another thing to take into consideration with that from a PD standpoint is the fact that anytime you’re dealing with juveniles, that’s a very touchy and confidential situation. So, you have to be careful about what you do publish,” said Crowe.
This reporter clarified to Chairperson Crowe that the Cherokee One Feather does not wish to break confidentiality. Simply that the newspaper wants to support the community and the police department in any way it can when it comes to searches for missing people. Especially when there is a call for public assistance on Facebook. No more comments were given in this particular issue, but Commissioner Frank Dunn did inquire about the process for hiring a public information officer.
“With the PIO, I heard her say soon. So, can we have a date when this will be done? Are there any barriers to getting this done? Do you have a budget for it?” asked Dunn.
Police Chief Neadeau clarified that they will need to go through the Human Resources process to open the position, and that they have not completed the job description. Once they are finished, they can begin the process of creating the role in the Police Department.
“I just want to reiterate the importance of a public information officer. Because when we have a shooting like with Lambert Wilson, the community wants the police department to come forward and do a press release or meeting and assure the community that they’re safe. They want to be informed,” said Dunn.
The Commission moved to reports and heard first from Jonah Bird of Natural Resource Enforcement. He said the season is beginning to pick up for him and his officers. He also wanted to offer an update on the elk in Cherokee.
“One of the things we have realized with the elk is they’re down around the town area because there’s no feed for them. This time of year, feed is scarce, they’re coming down to the town to try to find feed. The elk ain’t the problem, it’s the people that are stopping in the road and the ones trying to go up and pet them,” said Bird.
Chairperson Crowe said that NRE and the Tribe might need to reevaluate the law regarding the elk.
“Do we have laws on the books covering the elk, covering the bear? Is there a fine process of what it would take to replenish that animal that was killed here? We don’t own the elk. But if it was killed on the reservation here, then how do we pursue that?” asked Crowe.
Bird said that there are some guidelines, but they could be expanded. He said that there is not a specific restitution fee for elk, so NRE would most likely operate on guidelines provided by North Carolina.
“It’s actually set in our hunting and fishing code. There is a schedule of restitution fines for the wildlife. But the maximum for wildlife, I think for bears it’s up to 5,000 dollars,” said Bird.
Attorney General Michael McConnell was in the meeting and said that they could look to add to the Code. He brought up Section 113-5 of the Cherokee Code, which states that ‘it shall be unlawful to hunt, trap, kill or take any bird of prey, elk or deer.’
McConnell was also needed for comment later in the meeting after Commissioner Dunn asked about the incident in Cherokee County that involved Cherokee SWAT. This was in reference to an officer-involved shooting where Cherokee SWAT was called to assist Cherokee Co. Police in December of last year. Police Chief Neadeau was the first to comment on the question.
“That’s still under investigation the State Bureau of Investigations. Because of the MoU that was in place, they were acting under state authority. So, they were acting under the sheriff’s authority at that time. So, they weren’t really even acting as Tribal officers,” said Neadeau.
The Attorney General then offered his piece on the situation.
“The SBI is investigating. We don’t have any idea when they’ll complete that. It could be tomorrow or a year from now. Carla and I and some other folks have been in touch with the Cherokee County Sheriff and his attorney. We disagree with some of the public statements that the Cherokee County Sheriff has made. But that doesn’t alter the facts of the encounter with the person who was injured. Right now, we’re waiting for the SBI to finish,” said McConnell. “The gentleman that was shot, he does have a couple of criminal charges in the county. We do anticipate a civil lawsuit being filed by the injured man against probably everybody who was involved in any respect.”
The Commission’s next business was to get an update on the Overdose Map project. Sheena Meader from Beraten Software was there to speak with the Commission on the process of implementing the new technology. The main topic for this meeting was deciding what items from should be considered for cataloging for a monthly dashboard for CIPD and other emergency services within the Tribe.
After some discussion, Commission Secretary Anita Lossiah made a motion to collect the following data points: calls for service (including topic and community breakdowns), arrests, accidents, citations, total drugs seized, overdose incidents (fatal and nonfatal), Narcan deployments, and booking report numbers.
There was also one community member who was present at the meeting. That was Sarah Thompson, who was there to advocate for more traditional literature and stories to be made available to the inmates in the jail. She suggested getting photocopies of stories to increase volume of material. Police Chief Neadeau said that typical protocol is for inmates to request literature, and that those books need to come from an official source and be wrapped up to avoid the delivery of contraband. The Commission told Thompson that they would work with her and the administration to try and implement more traditional literature at the jail.
The Commission finished their meeting in a closed session for ‘attorney-client privilege’. No further information or report was offered from the closed session.
The Thursday, February 9 meeting of the EBCI Police Commission was called to order at 12 p.m. with Chairperson Tunney Crowe; Vice Chair Buddy Johnson; Secretary Anita Lossiah; and Commissioners Lisa Taylor, Kym Parker, Frank Dunn, and Hillary Norville present. Commissioner Solomon Saunooke was absent from the meeting.
The next meeting of the Police Commission is set for Thursday, March 9 at noon. The Commission gathers monthly and has been meeting in the training room at the Anthony Edward Lossiah Justice Center. These sessions are open to tribal members until the Commission moves into an executive session.
