Improving diversity is important going forward, as is making sure troopers have training about and are familiar with the communities they’re policing, said Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow.
“The majority of your police officers in Indian Country are not people of color,” said Lekanoff, an Alaska Native who served as the governmental affairs director for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for more than 15 years.
“How do we create the conversation that you are all working in a minority community?” she said, calling for “understanding a racial dialogue of honoring and respecting the … trauma a minority community has gone through.”
Read more on Investigate West.