GOP Governor’s Debate: Should the state help cities and counties fight crime?
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Five Republican candidates hoping for the job of Indiana governor debated live for 90 minutes Wednesday night from the historic Madam Walker Legacy Center on WISH-TV.
The five invited candidates were Mike Braun, Brad Chambers, Suzanne Crouch, Eric Doden, and Curtis Hill.
News 8 asked the candidates: Should the state help cities and counties fight crime? Should the state play a bigger role in prosecuting criminals?
Chambers says Indiana needs uniform bail for repeat violent offenders. He says officers and first responders need to have more resources to address people’s mental health. He also criticized Braun, as a U.S. senator, for doing “literally nothing” to stop immigration on the U.S. border.
Crouch said the understaffed Indiana State Police needs to be fully staffed, and she will support local law enforcement. She says much of Indiana crimes and drugs are coming from the U.S. southern border, so she supports sending Indiana National Guard personnel there to keep the crime and the fentanyl from coming to Indiana. She adds that she wants to assure “illegals that come here will be deported to sanctuary cities,” which she helped to prohibit in Indiana when she was a state lawmaker.
Doden says police should enforce the rule of law, and the government needs to help recruit more police and give them the tools to keep people safe.
Braun says he’s been endorsed by Indiana State Police Alliance. Pay and benefits have been improved for state police troopers, he says, but now the pay and benefits for other police officers’ jobs need to be addressed. Braun says he’d deport “illegal aliens.”
Hill, a former Indiana attorney general who called himself a career prosecutor, said, “The one thing I wouldn’t do is stand by and watch the city of Indianapolis burn at the hands of lawless looters and hoodlums like the Holcomb-Crouch administration did during 2020.” He says he’s the only GOP candidate on the stage who’s fought crime and locked people up for violent offenses. He says he’ll support the police and the creation of crime programs.