All Bay Mills Law Enforcement Officers (Police and Conservation)are deputized to enforce Bay Mills tribal laws, federal laws,and Michigan state laws. In order to do this an officer must complete different police training.
Typically a new hired officer will be sent sent to the Indian Police Academy for sixteen weeks of basic police training. This training held in New Mexico, trains officers in federal and tribal laws, along with all other basic police training, such as weapons, hand to hand techniques, U. S. Constitutional law, court procedures, civil law, etc., all in a military type setting. After the basic police training and one year on the job, by Michigan state regulation, the officer will attend state training in a Michigan police academy. This training is about two weeks and is exclusively state laws and procedures with addidtional weapons training included.
In some cases a new hire will go to a state academy in Michigan where the officer will receive all the basic police training with state laws and procedures. After the completion of the twelve weeks of a state academy, the officer will attend a one week course on Tribal and Federal laws and procedures sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
After all this training is successfully completed, the officer can be deputized by a County Sheriff, deputized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and of course the Bay Mills Tribe. All of this training and deputization is needed so officers have the jurisdiction to enforce any and all laws on any person on Bay Mills Indian Community land. It also ensures officers have the proper jurisdiction in tribal court, federal court, and state court.
As you can see, Bay Mills Officers are very well trained and need to be to fairly enforce all rules and regulations. As all other officers, Bay Mills officers must also attend annual training, new, updated, and specialized.
