A Nebraska legislative hearing on alcohol sales in Whiteclay proves there is a need for more police on the streets – that’s the assessment of State Senator Patty Pansing Brooks.

The Lincoln lawmaker is looking into current laws regarding a police presence to monitor liquor control rules.

Pansing Brooks says Sheridan County commissioners testified that there is a need for more officers.

Pansing Brooks says the Liquor Control Commission has the authority to assign state troopers to patrol that area of Sheridan County.

She says the negative effects of alcohol sales in Whiteclay have been going on for more than a century.

Pansing Brooks says one in four babies born on the Pine Ridge reservation suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and alcoholism and teen suicides there are well above the national average.