LITTLE BOSTON — Samuel White, a member of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, joined the Port Gamble S’Klallam Police Department as chief of police on Oct. 22.

He’s spent 12 years in law enforcement, including serving as police chief for the Makah Nation. He was director of the Makah Nation’s Public Safety Department and spent almost four years there. Most recently, he spent about four years with the Suquamish Police Department as a sergeant.

Recently, White talked to the North Kitsap Herald about his new job and his goals for the department.

Herald: Can you tell me about your department — number of officers, type of equipment, etc.?

White: It’s a total of 10. That includes the chief and the support specialist, one sergeant and one lieutenant. The rest are patrol. Right now, it’s a small, small agency, so our living space … is very limited.

We’ve got very good patrol cars. We operate on the standard equipment that every other law enforcement agencies operate with here, as far as personal protective equipment for each officer’s standard equipment.

Herald: What are some of the challenges you confront regularly in providing law enforcement on the reservation?

White: One of the challenges is, like all law enforcement agencies, 2 percent of the people cause 90 percent of the problems. That, and being in a confined area, it imposes some very challenging aspects. Meaning, the jurisdiction is limited … If [suspects] go out to another jurisdictional area, it makes it harder to track people down. The casino adds another element of trouble as well, with the amount of traffic. It adds a different realm of security and enforcement.

All in all, it’s just the same as other law enforcement agencies. Just some of it is more confined and makes it more visible, I guess, in the eyes of the community, so sometimes problems appear bigger than they actually are.

Herald: In what cases do Port Gamble S’Klallam police respond off-reservation, and do you foresee any opportunities for your department to provide or contribute to law enforcement and public protection outside reservation boundaries, through a county mutual aid agreement or cross-deputization?

White: Knowing what mutual aid is like, what it contributes, where we’re at right now [is] we need to establish mutual aid with Kitsap County. If we had to respond to emergency incidents, we will if we have to, but it is better to have established mutual aid. Maybe down the road, with full staff — two positions are vacant — and the agency is running like I’d want it to, maybe we can establish further aid. Right now, it’s not anywhere near it, because I’m not up to full staff right now and I haven’t hit the training levels that we would need in order to do that. Right now, all our officers are not only state- but federal-certified.

Getting to that point of being able to venture on to that next phase, which is mutual aid, establish that, and then after all that is established, then you can discuss cross commission. And there’s a lot of hurdles and issues to discuss before you ever even consider it — what the Tribe is willing to open up to, risk vs. reward, [and] is it worth it? I don’t even want to discuss it at this point in time, until I’ve got certain things in place.

Herald: What do you feel about the general public’s understanding of your department — do people understand Tribal police authority? — and how do you plan on improving that understanding?

White: I think the local community that we provide services to understands it very, very clearly. I think people outside the area don’t understand it as clearly as the local community does. The community we provide services to understands our authority, understands our services.

The things we can do to improve it, there’s a lot. One, public information releases, which is very similar to reporting to newspapers, and expanding community education.

Herald: What are your future goals for the department?

White: Future goals, I’ve got quite a few:

First goal I have to establish is, I’ve got to get up to full staff, have every officer trained through the basic police academy, which primarily focuses on federal law; through the equivalency academy, which primarily focuses on state laws; and Washington State Tribal Officer certification. With that, it’s one of the bigger steps toward cross commission and mutual aid. it opens you up to more audits, but it’s a good step to go toward.

Second phase is to get all the equipment replaced. Hopefully, if we get the 2015 Cops Grant, life will be great. If we get it, it re-outfits officers head to toe — new equipment, new vehicles. It would make the world a much easier place. If we don’t get it, then we’re looking at a very systematic approach to replacing out their personal protective gear — uniforms, Tasers, etc. It’s going to be a much longer road to that endeavor.

We’re already working on joint operations with Suquamish Police Department. At this point, it’s at the training level; we’re working on assisting each other, joint training with them and joint community operations, such as the RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) program.

Then I can finally look at cross commission and look at the pros and cons with the Tribal Council. But there’s a lot of issues with even venturing toward that goal. But I’ll establish legwork, so if we want to decide that, we can approach it.