NCJ Number
167388
Date Published
1994
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This paper explores the development of Indian tribal police in the United States and compares it with the use of African- American police to police predominantly black neighborhoods as a means of enhancing social control of minorities without reforming oppressive institutional structures.
Abstract
The analysis conceives of the origin and development of Native American tribal police as an example of the use of minorities policing minorities as a strategy of social control. The key to explaining tribal police is to explore the dialectical nature of this phenomenon. First, contradictory policies were pursued simultaneously with the same program. Tribal police were supported by some because such a policy encouraged self- determination and by others because it assisted assimilation and control. Second, the creation of tribal police enhanced social control at both an ideological and material level. Materially, the use of tribal police increased the effectiveness of investigating agencies by using officers who understood the language and customs of the people being controlled. Ideologically, the use of tribal police helped social control agencies achieve greater legitimacy among those being policed, to whom it appeared that their race was participating in the dispensing of justice. It is much easier and more effective to restrict a community's freedom with a recognized and legitimate authority than through the use of force and violence. Applying these observations about tribal police to the use of racial and ethnic minority police officers throughout the United States suggests that rather than being humanitarian efforts to improve the criminal justice system, this is a method for achieving more effective control of subordinate populations. This conclusion is particularly warranted when the hiring of minority police is not accompanied by reforms in institutional racism and class relations. 109 notes