Becerra-Garcia

BACKGROUND

The setting of this case is the Tohono O’odham Indian Res- ervation, which covers a sprawling 90 miles across southern Arizona. The Tohono O’odham Police Department includes a division of tribal rangers, officers who have less power than fully-authorized tribal police officers. The rangers are autho- rized to patrol the reservation and report suspicious activity to tribal police officers or the United States Border Patrol. According to the testimony of two rangers and a tribal police officer, rangers do not have authority to stop suspicious vehi- cles. Vehicles that stop voluntarily may be detained until the arrival of officials who have authority to arrest. If a suspicious vehicle does not voluntarily stop and instead exits tribal land, the rangers must let the car go. A ranger may make an arrest at the direction of a tribal police officer. Thus, the rangers’ primary duties are to patrol, looking for suspicious activity, to report to the police department and other authorities (usually the Border Patrol), and to detain suspects who voluntarily stop.

Tribal Rangers Andrew Ruiz and Denver Calabaza were patrolling on a remote dirt road on the reservation when they saw a…