They include personnel, facilities, and training. Reservation police departments' resource limitations range from needing additional officers to be able to staff all shifts to needing more personnel to reduce response time to less than 10 minutes. While the primary resource need is personnel, specifically patrol officers, several departments lack jail space entirely or require refurbished or additional jail space. Satellite or district offices are a frequently noted need, to permit more comprehensive coverage over a large territory. The distance between department offices and more remote parts of the reservation can be 100 miles or more, causing serious delays in reporting crimes as well as in responding to calls.
Training is another vital resource.
Officers need to improve their skills both to ensure that the department is accepted and trusted by the community and recognized by other law enforcement agencies. They also need training in current practices, such as the community policing philosophy, and techniques such as the appropriate use of discretion, problem-solving approaches such as mediation and dispute resolution, working with service providers, working with families, working with community groups such as Neighborhood Watch and tenant patrols, and gang prevention and intervention programming and other juvenile issues. In addition, officers need training on other current techniques and practices to improve and continuously up-date their skills. Many chiefs point out that the education and experience of officers varies, so certification and training are vital in improving the overall level of officers' professional knowledge and behavior and gaining the respect of other law enforcement agencies.