What about your qualifications or experience makes you the best candidate for sheriff?
No other candidate has my combined law enforcement and military experience, formal education and training in public safety. Is retired after 29 years in state police as a trooper, patrol supervisor, detective, then commander of investigations for 15 years. Developed investigative practices and guidelines and procedures for 100 officers. Spent six years in the Army as military police. Has a bachelor of science degree in disaster and emergency management. Attended the FBI academy and state police command college. Experiences have prepared him well to make county safer and make sheriff’s office even better. Said residents who are facing the worst days of their life, such as in a natural disaster or crime, want and need the most experienced, educated sheriff working with all officials. Understands logistics, preparation, finance, response, mitigation and recovery.
What are the top three law enforcement issues facing the county? How would you, as sheriff, address them?
Issues have been the same for a decade but are only worsening — the drug epidemic, jail overcrowding and crime from Marion County.
On drug epidemic, would partner with federal, local and state to interdict trafficking and partner with the medical community to provide services and programs to those fallen victim to keep them out of criminal justice system permanently, which would also help alleviate overcrowding. Would increase education in schools, specifically middle and high schools, for awareness and prevention.
Aggressive tactics in Marion County have lowered crime rate, but it has been displaced to the outlying counties. Oftentimes people arrested are from Indianapolis. “As your next sheriff I understand that and will push back.” Will do everything in his power to see that crime doesn’t happen to you, your families and neighborhood. Would be proactive on the streets, conduct relentless criminal investigations and build positive relationships with prosecutor’s office to build strong cases for convictions to put them in jail, and stay in jail.
County has been dealing with jail overcrowding for years and administrations have not effectively dealt with the issues. Every month in 2017 the jail was over capacity and county is in the position now to be sued for overcrowding. Many components contribute to overcrowding, including police, prosecutors, courts, jail expansion projects and the legislature. Some of those components can also be solutions. Would diligently work to find the most efficient, effective and fiscally prudent solutions. Current jail does need to be expanded. Community corrections also needs to be expanded, but to what degree is debatable.
Does the sheriff’s office or jail need more employees? Why or why not? And if so, how should new employees be paid for?
Currently has sufficient deputies to serve one of the most populated and fastest growing counties in the state. In foreseeable future, will need more. If jail expanded, will need more to man the jail for the safety of employees and inmates. Recently county OK’d hiring a few more correctional officers. Paying for more employees would come from the budget that is approved by the council.
In the past, county officials have debated a public safety income tax that would raise residents’ income taxes to pay for public safety expenses, including police and the sheriff’s office. Do you support this tax? Why or why not? Would you advocate for the county to enact it? Why or why not?
Public safety in any county is going to take the lion’s share of the budget. About 60 percent of the county’s budget is public safety in some way, shape or form. Only a limited amount of ways to get money for public safety. Property tax would pay for jail expansion. Or this income tax, which would be creating a new tax to get the money available to hire officers or jailers. “I think we need to take a hard look at that before we pull the trigger on creating a new tax or increasing a tax. Our jail is the big thing that is looming over us right now because of potential for a lawsuit. Our fate is in our own hands to prevent that from happening.” Other components to jail overcrowding could be looked at that would avoid needing more money. Would favor tweaking state law to provide exceptions to the law that would send certain prisoners to state prison if county can demonstrate the jail has been over capacity for a certain amount of time. Is reluctant to support an income tax increase as a first option.
What can the sheriff and the sheriff’s office do to reduce recidivism among people arrested in the county?
“As your next sheriff, I would not ignore the systemic reasons for criminal behavior.” Said 75 percent of all crimes committed here are due to drugs. Drugs alter the brain, and cause mental illness. Would favor a holistic approach to rehab, including accountability and participation in addiction treatment programs for drugs and alcohol and mental illness treatment. Would favor education initiatives, maybe skills-based, to provide skills or education to make some of these people productive members of society, and also a religious component.
Jail overcrowding has become a consistent problem. What is your plan to address this issue? Would you expand that jail? What is your plan for expansion? And how would that expansion be paid for?
Does need to be expanded, but the size is debatable. In 1977, jail was moved from courthouse to current location at 100 cells. From then on, little was done to address the jail filling due to the size of the county until 1997 when the ACLU filed a lawsuit and won, forcing an expansion from 100 to 300 jail cells. The same thing has replayed itself again. Nothing happened to address issues of overcrowding for 20 years and county has grown exponentially. Capacity is 322 and county is over that every month. County could expand the jail to 1,000 inmates, but history shows another expansion will be needed in 20 years. So how large do we go? Favors a 128-bed expansion right now to get to a capacity of 450 to address overcrowding and then larger community corrections facility that offers programs so that people can be moved out jail and into the community corrections programs that can ideally reduce recidivism and create a productive member of society.
The smaller expansion forces us as elected officials to continue to work on that system, programming, legal and addiction, to keep that population down. Current and prior administrations have failed to do that.
One issue that has been pointed to as a cause for jail overcrowding is the state legislature’s decision to have the lowest level offenders serve their sentences in the county jail, rather than a state prison. Should that be changed? Would you advocate for that to be changed? Why or why not?
Favors a tweak to the law to provide an exception. Would advocate not to repeal, but to create exceptions that would allow an overcrowded jail that has demonstrated that over a period of time to funnel some inmates to the state DOC until the jail is not overcrowded.
Drugs are a significant issue in our county and around the state and nation. Some officials have estimated that 90 percent or more of the criminal activity here is in some way tied to drugs. And for some inmates, jail time may give them a chance — even forced — to get sober. Should the county offer them resources during a time where they may have a significant impact? Do you favor offering rehabilitation or drug treatment programs? Why or why not? Do you favor having certain areas of the jail dedicated to housing drug addicts, where they can receive specialized services? Why or why not? What else should the county do?
75 percent of crimes are connected to drugs in the county. But current jail doesn’t have room for programming right now. Favors holistic treatment that includes accountability and participation. Of jail population, 20 percent are not reachable and 20 percent will be scared straight and not arrested again. The other 60 percent need direction and influence, such as alcohol or drug addiction or anger management programming. Would pay for programming with inmates’ insurance or help for the indigent. “This is a shared responsibility” that involves lots of stakeholders and would apply for federal and other grants to address the issues.
What is your philosophy for the public release of information regarding all incidents, crimes, investigations and accidents? How and when should information be released and what internal setup would you have to make sure the public is aware of all crime and safety issues?
Transparency to the public and the media is of utmost importance. No problem providing information. The law requires certain information being made public. Would use the department’s website, which is outdated, to create a platform for the public to conduct some searches for public records. Would not release ongoing investigations that would compromise the investigation, juvenile victims or victims of sexual assaults. Would work to have a good relationship with the media, of all types, to disseminate information. Would generate news releases by the sheriff’s office. Would consider having a full-time public information officer.
Will you discipline officers found breaking traffic or criminal laws? Will they be charged or ticketed like everyone else? What would you do if an employee or deputy was suspected of criminal behavior?
Public trust in the sheriff’s office is paramount. No one is above the law, no prominent person or child of a prominent person is above the law. In 19 years in investigations, has investigated and supervised investigations of police misconduct or criminal behavior and believes in service, integrity and professionalism. Would take responsibility and all substantiated cases will be dealt with by progressive discipline or criminal prosecution.
Should deputies have ticket, traffic stop or public interaction quotas? For example, a quota might be that a deputy must make five stops or issue five tickets a day. Why or why not? How would you monitor the productivity of sheriff’s deputies? What is acceptable and not acceptable productivity?
Quotas are illegal per state law, but we have to have ways to evaluate and measure employees’ performance. Doesn’t like the idea of saying you have to have x amount of contacts every day or month. Quality is better than quantity. The issue is developing an appropriate performance evaluation mechanism. Would need to judge what deputies are doing, and how much time it takes. One might write 10 tickets, or investigate one burglary per day. Some officers are geared for traffic enforcement, some like to work on criminal investigations. Plans to strengthen the investigations division with personnel, equipment and other resources. “I would rather solve your burglary or any crime you may be a victim of than write you a traffic ticket.” Said there is a time and place for traffic enforcement but solving crime is paramount, first and foremost. Would affix responsibilities and rely heavily on deputies and others to accomplish responsibilities. Believes in empowerment and autonomy and giving deputies enough latitude.
Police departments across the nation have purchased military-style equipment, including tanks and other armored vehicles. Some have questioned whether local departments need that type of equipment and whether that is the best use of tax dollars. The sheriff’s office currently has a former military armored vehicle and M-16 rifles. What else, if anything, do you think is needed?
Rifles are appropriate and community needs to trust law enforcement to have weapons of that nature. Would take a look at the oversized armored vehicle as sheriff to see what value it has brought to the department, but knows it is very useful for SWAT team. How many times have we had it out — our own operations and other agencies. Would examine if department would we be better served to obtain more. Maybe we need something on a smaller scale that we would use many more times.
We do need certain elements of a militaristic nature but not the equipment that our active forces have to fight in Afghanistan.
Who will you appoint as your chief deputy, chief of investigations and commander of the road officers? If you haven’t made that decision, what process would you use and what are you looking for in those leaders?
Doesn’t owe any jobs to anyone, and hasn’t promised anything to anyone. Doesn’t have anyone in mind for any command or staff positions. Is an attribute of being outside the department, can bring fresh ideas and a new perspective. Electing someone from within the department promotes staleness and lack of vision. Plans to pick a chief deputy from within the sheriff’s office. Can’t guarantee that, but prefers it, especially for chief deputy. Would conduct interviews, gather more information and make a decision based on that. Would promote a tendency to not surround himself with like-minded people, but with people who have the ability to disagree and challenge. “That’s where growth happens and where change happens.” Current and past administrations have not dealt with the top challenges adequately and they have gotten worse.
What, if any, changes need to be made to best patrol White River Township, where the majority of the sheriff’s office constituents live?
Comes down to where the crime is happening. Favors predictive law enforcement. Would analyze statistical data so you know where the problems are, perhaps in another township and have agreements with other agencies to assist. The age of going it alone is antiquated and outdated. Issues that our society faces involves stakeholders, and would involve as many as possible to take the best approach to make an impact and a difference.
Under what circumstances would you ask the state police to investigate crimes instead of the sheriff’s office?
Lots of experience with that as commander of the state police post that serves 7 counties for 15 years, and would get calls for investigations from all the counties. Decision to ask for another agency would depend on the circumstances. Can’t pick a certain crime and say we are going to call them every time for a police-action shooting or a death in the jail. Would want to avoid any perception that sheriff’s office is covering up anything. “My vision is to make the sheriff’s office a premier law enforcement agency in the state. There has to be trust built in the community and the media that my sheriffs department is capable, trustworthy and professional to investigate most of their own.” Said Indianapolis and state police investigate their own people. Would ask state police or FBI if he felt public was best served, but that would be rare.
What will you do to avoid conflicts of interest? What conflicts of interest would you have, if elected? Do any of your relatives or friends work for the sheriff’s office? Would you ever hire a relative to work at the jail or for the sheriff’s office? Why or why not?
Doesn’t have relatives or friends at the sheriff’s office, which is a value. Does not owe anyone anything and hasn’t promised anyone anything. Looks for qualified people. Everything will be application-based and taking the best qualified. Opposes favoritism, nepotism and cronyism. Is in favor of hiring the best qualified for the position. Has no conflicts to disclose.
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Name: William Stoney Vann
Party: Republican
Residence: Greenwood
Family: Wife Veneda and five children
Occupation: Retired in February after 29 years as a trooper with the Indiana State Police
Educational background: Graduate of Emmerich Manuel High School and University of Indianapolis
Political experience: None
Memberships: Indiana State Police Alliance Pioneers, Indiana Sheriff’s Association, American Legion Post 252, FBI National Academy
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