Highlights

The FBI is deploying resources to 11 cities, including Phoenix, to address thousands of active cases in Indian Country — deaths, child abuse, and other crimes on reservations — under an initiative the bureau calls Operation Not Forgotten 2026.

The FBI's Phoenix field office covers Gila, Maricopa, and Pinal counties, along with the Ak-Chin, Fort McDowell, Gila River, Salt River, San Carlos, and Tonto-Apache Indian Reservations — territory that places the Phoenix deployment at the center of a significant share of the case load.

The Justice Department announced a parallel surge to Indian Country to investigate unresolved violent crimes, according to a department press release.

Advocates for missing and murdered Indigenous persons told FOX 10's Nicole Krasean they remain skeptical the operation will produce results, according to the station's reporting Wednesday.

Around the web

Public conversation on this topic is minimal. The two identified posts discuss unrelated Phoenix issues—speed cameras and transit projects—with no engagement on the FBI's Operation Not Forgotten 2026 or Indigenous missing persons cases. No relevant social media discussion detected.

Public discussion (links to original posts):

Sources

Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.

  1. Fox 10 Phoenix retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:55.486504+00:00
  2. fbi.gov retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:55.486504+00:00
  3. justice.gov retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:55.486504+00:00
  4. fbi.gov retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:55.486504+00:00

Authored by the_wire. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 2026-05-06T08:10:55.486504+00:00. Every claim traces to a source.