Over the next six months, the United States Justice Department is rotating 60 Federal Bureau of Investigation employees through 10 different Field Offices to help address unresolved violent crimes in Indian Country– including crimes relating to missing and murdered indigenous persons.
As part of “Operation Not Forgotten,” FBI personnel will rotate in 90-day increments, supporting field offices in Albuquerque; Denver; Detroit; Jackson, Miss.; Minneapolis; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; and Salt Lake City. The FBI will work in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tribal law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions and will be assisted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit.
Operation Not Forgotten also expands upon the resources deployed in recent years to address cases of missing and murdered indigenous people. The effort will be supported by the Department’s MMIP Regional Outreach Program, which places attorneys and coordinators in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the United States to help prevent and respond to cases of missing or murdered indigenous people.
At the beginning of Fiscal Year 2025, FBI’s Indian Country program had approximately 4,300 open investigations, including over 900 death investigations, 1,000 child abuse investigations, and more than 500 domestic violence and adult sexual abuse investigations. This is the third deployment of FBI resources under Operation Not Forgotten, which has provided investigative support to over 500 cases in the past two years. These operations have resulted in the recovery of 10 child victims, 52 arrests and 25 indictments or judicial complaints.
Comments