Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal speaks out about lawsuit against Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Marion County Sheriff’s Office is fighting back against the notion it’s not law enforcement.
This comes after the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board refused to admit its sheriff’s deputies on these grounds.
“We had initially filed a lawsuit against the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board because they would not train deputy sheriffs from Marion County. They do so for 91 other counties and cities throughout the state,” Sheriff Kerry Forestal said.
A judge determined Marion County sheriff’s deputies are considered law enforcement in a ruling on the lawsuit the sheriff’s office filed over this. The state filed a notice of appeal.
“I think we should have that latest training, and why they do not want to include Marion County is still puzzling,” Forestal said.
The ruling said the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board “takes the position that these deputies should be treated as special deputies much like jail guards, but that would create an anomaly where these deputies would not have the same authority as those in other states.”
“We need to have people in the courtrooms, serving the warrants and checking on the sex offenders,” Forestal said. “That is the responsibility of the sheriff’s department.”
Training at the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Academy is required under a police reform bill passed in 2021. Forestall said his office trains new hires in-house and they mirror what that statewide academy instructs.
“One of their board members said ‘wouldn’t it be simpler if we basically blessed your training academy?’ I said that’s not what I came here for at the time,” Forestal said. “It’s not something I would disagree with if they thought they didn’t have the room for us. All I want is to train the deputies to be in the guidelines that were passed by the State Assembly.”
A source of this issue is the 2007 merger of the Sheriff’s Office and the Indianapolis Police Department to create the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, leaving the Marion County Sheriff Deputies with reduced duties.
There is no timeline for when this matter will be resolved.