Catawba Nation Debuts Agency

(Rock Hill, S.C.) – It’s official! The Catawba Nation Tribal Police Department is South Carolina’s newest law enforcement agency. Though sworn in earlier this year, the officers just recently made headlines by being cross-deputized by York County Sheriff, Kevin Tolson, allowing them to enforce both South Carolina and York County laws on tribal property.

To-date, the United States is comprised of 574 federally recognized tribes, with only 258 currently having a fully dedicated Tribal Law Enforcement presence. The Catawba Nation Tribal Police Department joins the Cherokee Police Department in North Carolina to become the second agency of its kind to exist within the Carolinas.

Currently, the Catawba Nation Tribal Police Department works in partnership with the York County Sheriff’s Office to patrol roughly 1,000 acres of Tribal Land located South of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Once the agency is fully staffed it plans to provide 24-hour law enforcement services to the residents of the Catawba Nation Reservation. Catawba Tribal lands also extend well into North Carolina. Future plans include the agency having a presence across State Lines in Cleveland County. For now, the department will continue working closely with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office to assist with enforcing laws on Tribal Land until it’s ready to transition law enforcement services over to its own officers.

The Catawba Nation Tribal Police Department currently operate a fleet of Chevrolet Tahoes. The vehicles boast a full Soundoff Signal package, which was upfit by MCA-Mobile Communications America in York, South Carolina. The decals themselves were designed and applied by Industrial Sign and Graphics. At first, the vehicles were meant to feature a full color design, before Catawba Nation transitioned to a more subdued appearance. In our humble opinion, the arrow, and overall color scheme work perfectly with the agency’s new patch to pay homage to Catawba Nation.

We’d like to extend a very big THANK YOU to Catawba Nation for inviting us out to photograph the newly formed agency. To view more pictures of the agency, please click here to visit the York County portion of the database.