St. Joseph County Sheriff candidates discuss recent gun violence amongst other topics in South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The race through the campaign trail is heating up as St. Joseph County Sheriff candidates Scott Ruszkowski (D) and Rod Laureys (R) Answered questions from the community at Bethlehem Missionary church on Oct. 8.

Those questions involving a variety of topics from jail ministry and immigration to the most recent gun violence outbreak.

Bringing 37 years of experience at SBPD, 11 of which have been as chief of police, Democrat candidate Scott Ruszkowski says gun violence prevention is a community wide effort.

"I take it personal," Ruszkowski says. "We all should. Anybody wearing that badge should take it personal. Bringing what we've done since 2014 in South Bend with the group violence initiative. It takes a team, it takes a village, and if you care, you will be involved with us."

Opposing Ruszkowski is Republican candidate Rod Laureys who brings 15 years of experience with SJCPD, 10 of which were as a federal alcohol, tobacco, firearms task force officer (ATF).

Laureys says the most recent gun violence could be slowed down with the community working towards three important words.

"Prevention, partnership, and execution," Laureys says. "When it comes to cooperation – different uniforms, different departments, and one St. Joseph County is what I want to add."

With the position of top cop in St. Joseph County up for grabs, bringing transparency, accessibility, accountability to the community is crucial.

Ruszkowski's approach involves taking his experience of the last 37 years in law enforcement and putting it to work.

"Same thing as I've done for the last 12 years minimum as police chief," Ruszkowski says. "Look, I understand how people may perceive things, but this event is nothing unusual for me. I didn't start to come meet people just because of a campaign, I've been doing it my entire career and more importantly and more notably – the last 15 years I've been doing this."

For Laureys, transparency, accessibility, and accountability will take form using digital platforms to reach the whole community.

"I'm going to start doing a weekly social media podcast talking about what's going on today, how the sheriff's department is working with it, and what we're doing with the jail," Laureys says. "The public deserves to know how their money is being spent and it doesn't happen on a daily basis. I'm going to change that."