Flandreau tribe cutting ties with city police

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is cutting ties with the City of Flandreau Police Department because of a rift over marijuana legalization, city officials said.

The tribe gave the city a 90-day notice in June that it will end its 16-year policing agreement, effective Sept. 4, and form its own police department.

“I think their business venture had something to do with it and they decided to start their own police force,” Flandreau Mayor Mark Bonrud. “We had just renegotiated the agreement, then a couple of weeks later it was dissolved without notice.”

The tribe’s decision means significant budget cuts for the city’s police department, which will lose approximately $277,000 in annual federal funding it received for policing the reservation. Flandreau Police Chief Anthony Schrad said he will have to lay off three of his seven officers, including a school resource officer.

Calls to Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal President Anthony Reider and several tribal council members Tuesday were not returned. The tribe has hired Nick Cottier to be its police chief.

The city of Flandreau is unaffiliated with the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal government. The town of about 2,300 people is on the border of the tribe's reservation in Moody County, about 40 miles north of Sioux Falls.

The tribe voted in early June to legalize marijuana on the reservation by Jan. 1, 2016. Law enforcement authorities across the state have voiced concerns about problems that legalizing marijuana could cause — from impaired drivers to marijuana trafficking.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who confirmed that the tribe plans to part ways with the city’s police department, said all residents of Flandreau have benefited from the cooperation between tribal and city officers.

“Dissolving this long-standing relationship that has cost-effectively served the public is an unfortunate circumstance, particularly with the additional law enforcement challenges expected with the implementation of a marijuana grow operation,” Jackley said.

Schrad said federal funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs has covered roughly 30 percent of his department’s operating budget. That money will go away, and so will its school resource officer for Flandreau public schools.

“As a result, we discontinued the school resource officer position, which puts the school in a difficult position,” Schrad said. “It’s an important safety resource of the school.”