‘Warrior Woman’ Police Chief Sara Rice Announces Retirement from Law Enforcement

MILLE LACS RESERVATION – After nearly 20 years in law enforcement and five years serving as chief of police of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Tribal Police Department, Sara Rice has announced her resignation and retirement from law enforcement. Her decision was driven by pressing health issues and a desire to spend more time with family.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve and protect my own Band community and to lead the great men and women of the Mille Lacs Tribal Police Department, who in my opinion are the absolute best in the entire state,” Rice said.

Agreeing with that sentiment was Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin, who gave all the credit to Rice, saying, “Chief Rice was and still is devoted to our community like no other chief of police I have ever known, and she did an outstanding job in her position. We owe her a huge debt of gratitude.”

Benjamin appointed Rice chief of police in 2016. Rice was the first Mille Lacs Band Member to ever serve in the role and has had an exemplary career of law enforcement service, including being the first tribal chief of police ever appointed by a Governor to the Minnesota Board of Peace Officers Standards and Training in 2018.

With a focus on community policing, Benjamin said that Rice made all the difference in building bridges between the Band community and the police force.

“The community has always trusted Chief Rice. She did a wonderful job leading us through one of the bleakest periods in our recent history,” said Benjamin, referring to the two-year period when Mille Lacs County had revoked the Mutual Aid policing agreement with the Band.

“It was during that time that drug dealers saw the reservation as a 'police-free' zone,” said former Solicitor General Tadd Johnson, who worked closely with Rice during that period. “They knew our police could no longer arrest suspects because the sheriff wouldn’t book them and the county attorney wouldn’t prosecute them.”

Out-of-town drug-dealers wreaked havoc in the Band community during this period and the opioid epidemic exploded; several dealers have since been successfully prosecuted in federal court.

“Chief Rice’s leadership was both brilliant and strategic during this very difficult period,” said Benjamin, who described a 2017 visit from then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke after the crisis had made headline news. Following a meeting with Band officials, Zinke conducted a ride-along with Chief Rice while she gave him a tour of the drug houses that existed at that time and talked about the impact on her community and her officers.

“I’ll never forget that moment when Secretary Zinke stepped out of that squad car,” said Benjamin, “and he looked to his federal law enforcement staff traveling with him and said, ‘Give her whatever she needs.’ That was when we turned the corner from despair to optimism.”

“Whether presenting to the federal government or the State, Chief Rice was our most authentic spokesperson, and I don’t think she was even aware of how effective she was,” Johnson said. “They didn’t want to hear from the lawyers, they wanted to hear from Sara, and she was outstanding.”

“In a moment in history when the Band needed a law enforcement leader, Sara rose above and beyond the occasion,” Benjamin said. “It was her own community and family and friends who were being impacted by the crisis and her own officers who had served side-by-side with county officers who were now being threatened with arrest. She was every inch the Chief of Police and more effective than any other human being could have possibly been in the Chief of Police role for our Band at that time.”

Before she decides what she will do next, Rice said her priority right now is to spend more time with her ailing mother and to fully recover her own health after recently battling COVID-19 and other health issues.

“While this is a sad day for our Band, I know that at some point in the future Sara will be back in another important role serving the Band in some capacity. She is a true Warrior woman. It’s in her DNA to fight for a better future for our community. We wish her well as she takes this important time with her family,” said Benjamin.

About the Non-Removable Mille Lacs Band

Mille Lacs Reservation is located in east central Minnesota and is the perpetual home of the Non-Removable Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (www.millelacsband.com). More than 2,300 of the Band’s 4,700 members live within reservation boundaries. The Band supports its members with a variety of services for economic, social and cultural advancement, including health services, early childhood and youth centers and economic development planning.