DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38938.v1
title: Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies, 2018
title: Version 1

description: The Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies (CTLEA) is the first complete enumeration of tribal law enforcement agencies authorized to issue citations and make arrests for crime committed in Indian country. The CTLEA gathers administrative and operational information from tribally operated police departments, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police, and the Alaska Village Public Safety Officer's (VPSO) program operating in the United States during 2018. The CTLEA helps fulfill the Bureau of Justice Statistics' legislative mandate under the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA; P.L. 111-211, 124 Stat. 2258 Section 251(b)) to establish and implement a tribal crime data collection system.
Data for the CTLEA were collected by NORC, at the University of Chicago, in collaboration with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Indian Country section. The CTLEA consists of two surveys specific to tribally operated law enforcement agencies and the BIA police departments. The Alaska VPSO program is sponsored and funded by the Alaska State Troopers, which completed the tribally operated law enforcement agency questionnaire on behalf of all the VPSOs. Due to the unique territorial and criminal jurisdiction in Alaska Native Villages, only two tribally operated law enforcement agencies (the Chickaloon and Metlakatla Indian Community) met the eligibility criteria to be included in the CTLEA. Data for the 2019 CTLEA were collected through mail, email, and telephone nonresponse follow-up. Data on the number and type of tribally operated law enforcement and BIA agencies were obtained from all eligible federally recognized tribes. The final universe of eligible respondents included 234 tribally operated law enforcement agencies and the Alaska VPSO program, of which 215 (91.9%) participated in the survey. The 23 BIA police departments operating in the United States completed the survey.
description: The CTLEA questionnaire was mailed to 305 tribal law enforcement agencies responsible for policing in Indian country and Alaska Native villages during 2018. This master list was created by compiling information from the following sources:

the 2018 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA) tribal respondents
the 2002 Census of Tribal Justice Agencies (CTJA) respondents
the International Association of Chiefs of Police's Indian Country Law Enforcement Section membership list
a list of tribal agencies received from the FBI's Indian Crime Unit, and
the Alaska State Troopers Village Public Safety Officers Program.

Responses were received through mail, fax, and email from August to December 2019. Responding agencies were screened for eligibility to be included in the final CTLEA database. The universe excluded 19 tribal police departments found to be out of scope for 2018 and 28 agencies found to be ineligible.
description: A weight variable with two implied decimal places has been included in the Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies data file and must be used in any analysis.
description: Response Rates: The universe of eligible respondents included 234 tribally operated law
enforcement agencies and the Alaska VPSO program, of which 215 (91.9%)
participated in the survey. All 23 (100%) BIA police departments
operating in the United States completed the survey.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Bureau of Indian Affairs Law Enforcement Agencies
DS2: Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies
description: Tribally operated law enforcement agencies in the United States, Bureau of Indian Affairs police departments, and the Alaska Village Public Safety Officers program. Smallest Geographic Unit: City
description: mail questionnaireFor the CTLEA 2018 data collection, the data reference year is 2018. However, data collection was fielded in 2019, so the questionnaires are titled the "2019 Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies" and the "2019 Census of Bureau of Indian Affairs Law Enforcement Agencies".