Rocky Boy hires new police chief

The Chippewa Cree Business Committee hired a longtime veteran of Rocky Boy’s Police Department as the department’s new chief, committee members Ted Whitford and Calvin Joliet said Friday.

Whitford said that the Business Committee, the governing body at Rocky Boy, voted 7-1 with one other member abstaining to make acting Chief Larry Bernard the new police chief.

Bernard, an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree, who said he has been on the force for nearly 40 years, said he is excited to be chosen to head the department.

“I am going to try and give it a shot, and do the best I can; and hopefully get some results,” Bernard said Friday.

Calvin Joliet, head of the Law and Order Subcommittee, which oversees law enforcement on the reservation, said six candidates applied for the position, five from Rocky Boy and another from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

Whitford said the position was advertised Nov. 11 to Dec. 16.

Joliet said staffing and putting the personnel in place to open the juvenile detention center in the reservation’s prison will be among the issues that will await Bernard.

Bernard became acting chief in May when Police Chief Allen Primeau was suspended for reasons that were not disclosed by the tribe at the time.

A majority on the Business Committee later voted in October to terminate

Primeau was hired in December 2015 to head the police department.

Following his dismissal, Shelby DeMars, a spokesperson for the tribe, said Primeau had been fired after video surfaced of him initiating a physical altercation with a fellow officer while both were armed. DeMars also said that the Law and Order Subcommittee had received several complaints about Primeau’s behavior since his hiring, including allegations of verbal and physical abuse of both prisoners and fellow officers.

Primeau denied any wrongdoing, and said that he and the other officer in the video were engaged in horseplay and that the subcommittee had been looking for an excuse to remove him.