AKWESASNE -- Nearly $200,000 in grant funds will help the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Department better track sex offenders and upgrade its communications network.

Chief Andrew Thomas said $100,000 in federal funds gives American Indian policing agencies the power to restrict sex offenders even more than existing federal and state law allows.

"When the state Sex Offender Registry was set up, they had to make baselines for tracking and residences to comply with federal guidelines.

"We have to meet the state guidelines, but now we can put a bit more of a local feel into our program."

Thomas said the money will go toward technical advice and purchase of computer software to better track sex offenders' DNA, their residences and their movements.

He said four to five Akwesasne residents are registered sex offenders with the state's database, coordinated through the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

The chief said funding came from the Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program, which notified Indian tribes across the country that technical services and money was being made available through the Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending Registering and Tracking Office of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Thomas said the second Justice Department grant awarded to the Tribal Police Department was for $178,296 from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

It will be used to upgrade the current analog radio system to digitized equipment. All hand-held radios, patrol-car radio units and the base-station equipment will be replaced, he said.

The upgrade will help the tribal officers better communicate with each other and the federal and international agencies they often partner with for investigations.

Thomas said the U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel and other federal entities already use digital systems, so the tribal component will dovetail into it.

And the Mohawk personnel will still be able to communicate easily with the Enhanced 911 emergency system in place through Franklin County Emergency Services.

"Right now, everything can be heard over every home scanner, which is fine," Thomas said. "But sometimes, there are things you don't want others to hear."

That is when the Tribal Police will now be able to scramble some of its communications so it can be heard only by compatible digital police-radio systems.

draymo@pressrepublican.com