05.24.24

Hoeven Secures Commitment From Interior to Help Recruit, Train Additional BIA Law Enforcement Officials at Camp Grafton

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven this week secured a commitment from U.S. Department of the Interior officials to continue growing the U.S. Indian Law Enforcement Advanced Training Center (ATC) at Camp Grafton and help recruit and train more Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) law enforcement officers to combat crime in tribal communities. At hearings of the Senate Indian Affairs and Interior Appropriations Committees this week, Hoeven pressed BIA Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland on the need for additional law enforcement in Indian Country and secured his support for increasing operations at the Camp Grafton ATC.  

In 2020, Hoeven secured funding to open the ATC at Camp Grafton to provide law enforcement training options closer to home for BIA officers in the Upper Great Plains. Along with the U.S. Police Academy in Artesia, New Mexico, Camp Grafton delivers training for police officers, criminal investigators, correctional officers, dispatchers, and command staff working in Indian country. Specifically, the ATC at Camp Grafton delivers specialized advanced training in areas such as criminal, narcotics, and missing children’s investigations. The ATC at Camp Grafton also offers training in more recent areas of need like school resource officer training and opioid overdose protocols.

“The need for additional trained law enforcement officials in Tribal communities continues to grow. In 2020, I worked to help address this need in North Dakota through the formation of the BIA Advanced Training Center at Camp Grafton to provide training for law enforcement in the Upper Great Plains,” said Hoeven. “According to BIA’s most recent data from 2021, 5,429 law enforcement and public safety personal participated in training programs offered at the Camp Grafton ATC and the Indian Police Academy in New Mexico, but over 3,000 training participants, more than half, received training at the ATC. That’s good progress, but we need to do more, and key officials at the Interior Department committed to work with us to train and recruit more law enforcement officials for our tribal communities.”

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