Marion County Sheriff files suit against state training academy

Updated Nov. 10

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has filed a lawsuit to gain access to training made available through recent state legislation.

Among other police reform measures, the new law provides training and standards for law enforcement across the state. Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal said he’s on board with new protocols but for some reason, the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, ILEA, is shutting them out.

“We want to be part of the state-sanctioned HEA 1006. It was driven home with deescalations and other important things, we want to be part of that and we can’t attend and they will not give any other explanation,” Forestal said.

Forestal said the litigation is a last resort after he exhausted all administrative channels to get up to 20 deputies accepted annually for the training. The academy board also denied the MCSO's request to have its own training academy certified.

Forestal said it forced him to put the issue in the hands of the courts.

“I would think it would be more likely that they’d say ‘of course you should be included and people should be well protected in Marion County as they are in any other of the 91 counties by the best-trained law enforcement officers,” Forestal said.

The MCSO is in need of dozens of trained deputies of the county's new Community Justice Campus.

All other Indiana counties and some private institutions have been approved to receive the state training.

The ILEA said in a written statement that it was aware of the lawsuit and that the board would never make any decisions which would have a detrimental impact on public safety.

The MCSO is fully accredited and has been in operation for nearly 200 years.

This story has been updated.

Contact WFYI city government and policy reporter Jill Sheridan at jsheridan@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @JillASheridan.