Crime Rate Topic During WPCO Meeting
Tribal Executive Board member Roxanne Gourneau expressed her frustration with the amount of criminal activity in the area during comments made at the Wolf Point Community Organization’s monthly meeting on June 17.
Gourneau said she has received “a lot of calls” pertaining to an incident at a Wolf Point store involving two women attacking others. She believes one of the alleged aggressors was a tribal employee.
Gourneau said she will urge TEB to support her motion to have tribal administration investigate the matter.
“If you are going to be the base of an organization, you will act accordingly,” Gourneau said. “I don’t care if the motion is defeated or not. No one should be above the law.”
She noted that damage was done at the store, and that Wolf Point is already struggling with having a lack of stores.
“If the police or courts don’t do anything, we still have administration,” Gourneau said. “It’s not who they are, it’s the issue.”
Gourneau said she received information recently that Wolf Point has the fourth highest crime rate per capita of Montana’s 129 municipalities. She feels that the crime rate is part of the reason that Wolf Point struggles to attract professionals such as teachers and physicians.
TEB member Lawrence Hamilton ton agreed that employees should be held accountable for their actions. He added that the tribal board members should also be responsible for their actions.
Lewis Matthews, chief of police for the Fort Peck tribes, also provided a report at the meeting. “I do agree with accountability. We have to make our communities safer,” Matthews said.
Matthews added that between June 11-17, the Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice had 340 calls and made 15 arrests.
He noted that the department is currently working well with the Roosevelt County Sheriffs Office. “It’s been going pretty smoothly,” he said.
Also during the meeting, Hamilton announced that he and a few other TBID members are in the process of adding a bowling alley to be located across the street from Silver Wolf Casino.
“That’s great,” WPCO chair Holly Hamilton said. “At least, it’s something else to be doing.”
WPCO approved providing $500 for Shakespeare in the Park, $1,200 for the Skillz and Drillz basketball tournament and camp and $500 to help Wolf Point student Jaycen Williams attend the John Hopkins University’s leadership program.
During the Fort Peck Housing Authority report, Nadine Adams said two interviews have been scheduled for the executive director’s position.
Jacob Lien and Sierra Hamilton were recipients of WPCO’s $2,500 scholarships this year.
