U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich announces $3.2 million in Justice Department 2023 grants for three Montana tribes

BILLINGS  — The Justice Department on Oct. 20, through its Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS), announced that it has awarded 182 grants to 111 American Indian and Alaska Native communities, totaling more than $96.7 million. Included in the awards are grants totaling $3.2 million to three tribes in Montana.

“This grant program was created in recognition of the fact that Tribes are in the best position to determine how to meet the most urgent public safety challenges facing their communities,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “These resources will go directly to supporting Tribes’ efforts to bolster their law enforcement capabilities, combat gender-based and domestic violence, and provide support to victims. The Justice Department will continue to serve as partners to Tribes as they work to ensure the safety of their communities.”

“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that our resources support Tribal sovereignty and address acute public safety challenges in Indian Country and in rural Alaska,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who announced the awards Oct. 20 in remarks to the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage. “We are committed to working with our Tribal partners to make our resources more accessible to Tribal communities.”

“I am pleased three of our tribal nations in Montana will be receiving funds to help improve and support their critical work in making their communities safer. The money will help in a variety of ways, from strengthening justice programs, law enforcement, and public safety to supporting services for victims of domestic violence and services for youth,” said U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich, for the District of Montana.

Montana tribes receiving CTAS grants are:

Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, $1,435,232 total.

• Tribal Justice Infrastructure Program (Bureau of Justice Assistance), $1,335,237.
• Tribal Youth Program (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), 99,995.

Crow Tribe of Indians, $500,000 total.

• Tribal Youth Program (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), $500,000.

Northern Cheyenne Tribe, $1,328,909 total.

• Public Safety and Community Policing (COPS Office), $629,138.
• Comprehensive Tribal Justice Systems Strategic Planning (Bureau of Justice Assistance), $149,831.
• Children’s Justice Act Partnerships for Indian Communities (Office for Victims of Crime), $449,992.
• Tribal Youth Program (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention),  $99,948.

The tribal grant awards are designed to help enhance Tribal justice systems and strengthen law enforcement responses, improve the handling of child abuse cases, combat domestic and sexual violence, support tribal youth programs, and fund an array of services for American Indian and Alaska Native crime victims. The awards are administered through the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

In addition to the CTAS awards, several other Justice Department components announced grant awards to Tribes. For example, OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime has awarded almost $70 million through the Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside to provide services for crime victims in tribal communities and to increase the quantity and quality of victim-centered services available to assist tribal victims of human trafficking in urban areas.

The Justice Department also awarded more than $8.5 million through OJP's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking to 24 tribes to assist in their compliance with federal law on sex offender registration and notification.

Of the more than $96.7 million in grants awarded under CTAS, a streamlined application that helps Tribes apply for tribal-specific grant programs, OJP made more than $66 million in awards, and the COPS Office made nearly $30 million.

The COPS Office used these funds to assist 49 Tribes in hiring personnel, equipment, and training grants to expand the implementation of community policing. Specifically, this funding can be used to hire or re-hire full-time career law enforcement officers, Village Public Safety Officers and school resource officers and to procure essential equipment, technology, and training to assist in initiating or enhancing tribal policing efforts.

About the Office of Justice Programs

OJP provides federal leadership, grants, training, technical assistance, and other resources to improve the nation's capacity to prevent and reduce crime, advance equity and fairness in the administration of justice, assist victims, and uphold the rule of law.

More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

About the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Justice Department responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Justice Department agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime-fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. Since 1994, the COPS Office has appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to over 13,000 state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 136,000 officers.

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