Vic Ryckaert, reporting for the Indy Star, has an article entitled Sheriff not about to turn IMPD over to Ballard. Indianapolis-Marion County has a unique, unified form of government. In most places, the county and the city are distinct units of government. The lines are blurry to non-existent in Marion/Indy. Sometimes it’s tough to distinguish between the vestigial organs of government and the necessary ones.
I’m not familiar with the details of the recent merger, but apparently the Indianapolis Municipal Police were merged with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department. Apparently mayor-elect Ballard has vowed to reclaim control of the police officers. Sheriff Frank Anderson said he’s not going to give up control of the 1,600 officers without a fight.
There are Constitutional issues involved — the Sheriff is an elected officer, mandated by the Constitution; but no particular are really provided about the duties of the office. There are certain duties prescribed by the General Assembly, but generally all kinds of special statutes (another Constitutional issue) related to Marion County that I never read. The City County Council surely has some say in the matter, and I suspect they’ll want to be careful. Republicans will now control and, for the short term, I suppose they might want to go with fellow Republican Ballard. However, Ballard isn’t exactly part of the Marion County GOP club and, long term, they might want to think about whether they will more often be able to get elected to the Sheriff’s Department or the mayor’s office. (Or, I suppose — brace yourself — they could try to figure out what the most effective policy might be for keeping law and order in the county).
Anyway, a battle over law enforcement isn’t likely to be pretty.
What is one of the big issues here? Ballard had promised to reverse Indianapolis’s defacto Santuary city policy during his campaign. Ballard clearly does not trust the Democratic Sheriff to follow the direction of the Mayor and City Council in these matters.
Frank Anderson has a choice. He can publicly state that he will respect the mandate of the election and comply with any soon to follow policy directives by the mayor and city council and perserve the current structure of the county city police department merger. Or Anderson can choose to face a drawn out legal fight that will only serve to weaken the Democratic party in Marion county. Does the Indiana Democratic party really want to see this esculate to a state wide pissing contest given how public opinion is rabidly moving against tolerating further illegal immigration nationally.
Wait – I thought the mandate was about property taxes. I guess mandates are tricky that way.
Doug,
I think the election was about more than just property taxes. It is was also about crime rates that are preceived to be rising and the need to raise significant funds to fight it.
The fact is that Ballard came out of nowhere to defeat Peterson with little funding, no significant State GOP support and facing strong opposition by from the local MSM, namely the Indianapolis star gives him a mandate to advocate policies on a number of fronts. Clearly voters wanted change.
Llamajockey: Ballard will certainly find much support in the Republican-controlled city council. The online Indy Star (don’t know about the print edition) is saying the GOP members will support him in a showdown with Sheriff Anderson. Indianapolis politics certainly won’t be boring in the coming future, but whether the city will be better for it remains to be seen.
Anderson will have a hard time protesting anything – the police themselves want out from under him.
I think it’s a done deal, myself. Indyundercover also insinuates Anderson has some health issues that may prevent an effective defense.