The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has adopted a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Tribal Community Response Plan (TCRP), the Department of Justice announced Friday.
The DOJ said the TCRP serves as a guide for how Tribal law enforcement and community members will respond when someone goes missing from a Tribal community.
The goal, DOJ said, is to recognize the critical need for an immediate and consistent response to missing persons reports from the Warm Springs Reservation. It will create a formal process for responding to and investigating those reports and outline what actions Tribal authorities will take.
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The DOJ said the Warm Springs TCRP establishes four different sets of guidelines relevant to MMIP:
- Law enforcement
- Victim services
- Public and media communications
- Community outreach
“When someone goes missing from a Tribal community, it is an urgent and time-sensitive situation. A community response plan ensures that all available resources—government, law enforcement, and community members—are quickly deployed in support of a full and thorough investigation,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Natalie Wight said in a statement.
The District of Oregon is one of six pilot program districts working to develop community response plans in accordance with a national MMIP initiative, the department said.
