Warm Springs tribe chooses new police chief

BEND, Ore. (AP) — The Warm Springs reservation has a new police chief, a man who spent most of his career in the FBI.

The Bulletin reports that Stan Suenaga, originally of Los Angeles, will oversee a department of about 100 people on the Warm Spring Indian Reservation.

In addition to police work, he’s in charge of the fire department, parole and probation, tribal prosecutor and defense attorneys and crime victims.

Suenaga says he will focus his early efforts on the tribe’s new sex offender registration laws, which now require sex offenders living on tribal lands to register with authorites.

Suenaga says the tribe needs to have its registry operational by July.

Suenaga will also seek to give tribal officers statewide authority. Current law doesn’t give them jurisdiction off the reservation or over non-tribal members on the reservation.

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Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com