ABC57 sits down with candidates running for Elkhart County Sheriff ahead of Wednesday night debate

ELKHART, Ind. — ABC57 caught up with Mike Culp and Brian Holloman, candidates for Elkhart County Sheriff ahead of the Elkhart County Sheriff Debate.

Mike Culp currently serves as the Captain of the Administrative Division and the Public Information Officer. The Elkhart County native has been with the Sheriff's Office since 2004.

Brian Holloman, another Elkhart County native, is Captain of the Patrol Division. He's been with the Sheriff's Office since 1995.

Both men have visions of change, but say they're proud of how far the Sheriff's Office has come.

Holloman: "I think we have a fabulous agency. There's just some things that have been allowed to slide a little bit over the years, and it's time to get leadership back out into the community."

Culp: "We've been doing a good job, but we need to continue moving the ball forward, so to speak, in a positive direction and continue improving public safety for our folks here."

ABC57 asked both men what they want you, the voters, to know before you head to the polls.

Culp: "I want people to know I'm a normal guy. I'm a farm kid from New Paris. I'm here to serve. To me, it's not about the title of Sheriff. It's about what I can do to serve this community. It's public safety over politics. We need good, elected leaders. We need folks that want to serve. It's best that we have somebody that has a servant's heart, that wants to serve this community and do right by the citizens of Elkhart County."

Holloman: "I have long encouraged everybody I talked to, do your homework. Do your deep dive into both candidates, who speak to your heart? Who speaks to the experience? Ultimately, who do you see as being the most accountable and the most accessible in the role of Sheriff? The reality is, the Sheriff is working for you within the community, and they need to do what's expected of them to better serve our community. Ultimately, that's all I would ask. Do your homework."

Both men spoke heavily on the topic of accountability.

Holloman: "It's that aspect of you do what you say you're going to do, and in many ways, you know when you get it wrong, you have to own that. I don't think law enforcement as a whole, has always been the best at that, and that has to start with leadership. It has to start with the head of an agency with an open and honest dialog and a willingness to accept, 'okay, yeah, we could have done better,' you know. Trust is built upon those types of things."

Culp: "I've also spent a fair amount of time presenting to the county council and commissioners on different things over the years, and I'm very familiar with those processes and how that relates also to the office of the elected sheriff."

With both men campaigning on accountability and transparency, we wanted to know what the relationship with local media would look like.

Culp: "Locally, it's on us to work together, as we should. So, I would not see there being any massive changes to how our agency works with the media. If anything, I would see some improvement there and maybe some increased time that we would get to know each other better as organizations."

Holloman: "As far as interacting with the media, we need to start sharing more information, as opposed to, to hoarding it or not being open to it. We talk about trust, if you're not sharing information, if you're not clearing things up, why would they trust you? So, I would see it as that open door piece, you know, and I understand, you can't always share everything for one reason or another, but in those moments, you can kind of explain,' I can't share this now, but I will when I have that opportunity.' Again, community is not going to trust you if you're not open with them, and media is a partner in that."

Both candidates, vying to represent the Republican party, will be on the ballot for Indiana's Primary Election on May 5.

Holloman and Culp will debate at the IU South Bend Elkhart Center located at:

125 E. Franklin Street

Elkhart, IN 45615

The debate is an hour long from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. ABC57 anchor Brian Conybeare is moderating the event.

You can watch the debate live on the ABC57 Facebook page or at abc57.com