A look inside the race for St. Joseph County Sheriff
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.--- A new sheriff in St. Joseph County will be elected this year. Current Sheriff Bill Redman is term-limited, so now, three men are in the race to be the new face of the St. Joseph County Police Department.
ABC57's Annie Kate caught up with all three ahead of Tuesday's primary elections, which will be consequential for the two Democrats running.
One is Earl Wigfall, currently a lieutenant for SJCPD. He brings 25 years of experience with SJCPD and was formerly the training commander. He said he is also a United States Air Force veteran.
"Experience matters, but it's the right experience," Wigfall said. "Our department has twelve different divisions. I've worked in 10 of them. The other two, I've trained in them. And when I say trained in them, I've led them in training."
If elected, he said he wants to increase crisis response staff and expand mental health response and partnerships.
"We're continuing to press training even more. Crisis intervention training, dealing with mental issues. Working with the prosecutors. That's what's working," he said. "Some of the things that we need to work on are our jail. We have a jail staffing shortage at this point."
Wigfall said beefing up jail staffing is his day-one priority.
"I've already started one process with the approval of the current sheriff, where we are hiring 18-year-olds from the South Bend Community School Corporation," he said. "Through that program, we hire them at 18."
The other Democrat vying for sheriff of SJCPD is Scott Ruszkowski, currently the police chief for the South Bend Police Department (SBPD). He brings 37 years of experience at SBPD, 11 of them as chief of police.
"I thought I would gracefully just retire. However, the sheriff's opening came up because he can't run again, and quite frankly, I can't give up police work," Ruszkowski said. "One of the goals that I set out for at the police department, South Bend Police Department, during my tenure, was to mentor, coach, and guide others. I hadn't seen that in my history at the police department, and it's one of the things that I made sure that I would be able to do."
Ruszkowski said he'd like to bring more community outreach to SJCPD and perhaps implement something similar to SBPD's online "Transparency Hub." He also mentioned the need to bolster jail staffing.
"Everybody's been struggling, nationwide, to get correctional officers hired and keeping them," he said. "You have to reward the good work. It's a very noble profession, and they don't get the credit they deserve. And part of my job, whether as chief or sheriff, is to be a cheerleader for the department, and that includes our jail staff."
Rod Laureys is the only Republican running for the spot of top cop at SJCPD, meaning he is pretty much guaranteed to face off this November against whichever Democrat wins Tuesday's primaries.
"There needs to be a lot more integrity brought back to law enforcement, and trust amongst the community," Laureys said. "The troops working in the field don't have trust in this administration as far as backing them to do their jobs."
Laureys brings 15 years of experience with SJCPD,10 of which were as a federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) task force officer. He also brings his background as a United States Marine Corps veteran and former SBPD officer.
He said he wants to beef up overall training at SJCPD and better distribute field officers throughout the county. He also said he wants to open the jail to clergy/ministry, something he said was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. And he expressed concern over the now-dismissed lawsuit from the Indiana Attorney General to SJCPD and Sheriff Redman.
"There's no drug unit established in St. Joseph County," Laureys said. "I'm going to fix that; we're going to start one immediately."
Indiana's primary elections are on Tuesday, May 5. Polls are open 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.