Police urged to confront California crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES across California are marking January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and organizers of a recent Native and Indigenous-led training conference in Monterey are urging police departments, sheriff’s offices, and prosecutors to take advantage of opportunities to build trust with Native and Indigenous communities when they are offered.

There are resources available for law enforcement to help end a widely acknowledged — yet hardly recognized — crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people in California. But police have to know about and take advantage of them to influence change.