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After more than a year in the governor’s race, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun released his public safety plan last week, part of his “Freedom and Opportunity Agenda,” calling for salary increases for public safety officers and a tough-on-crime approach.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of Hoosiers. As governor, I will put forward a bold agenda to protect Hoosiers from violent crime, drugs and the dangers crossing our southern border. We will introduce initiatives focused on increasing support for law enforcement, addressing the fentanyl crisis and enhancing measures to protect our schools and children,” said Braun. “My proven track record in the Senate serves as a solid foundation for the ambitious public safety plan I intend to implement for Indiana, demonstrating my unwavering commitment to the safety and security of all Hoosiers.”
Aside from a raise for law enforcement, specific points included a system for replacing noncompliant prosecutors and a focus on drug trafficking.
Plan details
Braun’s plan didn’t include specifics about how much of a “significant” salary increase state troopers could see but his campaign specified that it would be in addition to recent raises enacted by the General Assembly.
In the 2023 budget-writing session, lawmakers set aside funds to increase the starting salary for troopers to $70,000 and reform the pay matrix, responding to increased pressure from competing departments.
“As governor, I will prioritize the enhancement of salaries and benefits for our law enforcement officers. We will introduce comprehensive pay reform that aligns state troops and local law enforcement officers with competitive standards, including cost-of-living adjustments, competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits,” Braun’s plan read. “My commitment is to ensure that Indiana becomes a model state for law enforcement compensation as a recognition of their invaluable contribution to our safety and security.”
Local law enforcement are not funded by the state, but rather their respective localities.
The Indiana State Police would also have the responsibility of leading a state-wide drug interdiction strategy to address trafficking.
Braun’s plan also would establish the Office of School Safety, whose duties would include ones currently spread across the ISP, the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security.
And he called for the legislature to “empower the Governor’s office with the authority to remove and replace state-funded prosecutors who fail to uphold their duty to the community,” a process that the General Assembly has tried — and failed — to pass multiple times.
Republicans have criticized Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat, for his policy of not prosecuting marijuana possession of less than one ounce but failed to come to a consensus about replacing the locally elected official or appointing another prosecutor to handle those crimes. An interim Prosecutorial Oversight Task Force tasked with studying the issue concluded without any solutions or recommendations after a single meeting.
Braun’s campaign pointed to models in states like Georgia or Florida, where the governor can make those replacements. Notably, the General Assembly discussion has not included whether the governor should make those replacements — though it discussed and dismissed a proposal to add that duty to the Attorney General’s Office.
Pushback to plan
Braun’s fellow Republican candidates for governor weren’t so impressed, pointing to a controversial measure he introduced to limit the practice of qualified immunity while in the U.S. Senate.
“Senator Braun’s so-called ‘public safety plan’ is little more than an attempt to rewrite history after his disastrous failed attempt to end qualified immunity for police officers via federal mandate. Badly burned, he now says he’ll protect qualified immunity as he dangles the promise of state police pay raises in a move so cynical it could only come from a Washington, D.C. politician,” Doden’s campaign manager Brian Gamache said in a statement.
Braun pulled back his 2020 proposal after backlash from police unions and even Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, as detailed by Indiana Public Broadcasting.
In a lengthy rebuttal, the Brad Chambers campaign cited several examples of “contradictions,” adding in previously supportive comments Braun made about Black Lives Matter on top of qualified immunity.
The release criticized Braun for spending “over 1,800 days in the U.S. Senate” without acting on immigration and accused him of prioritizing politics over a recent border deal.
“U.S. Senator Mike Braun’s decision to finally release a public safety plan is a welcome development, but reeks of the worst of Washington, D.C.,” Chambers’ senior strategist Marty Obst said in a release. “As you can read yourself, the plan is contradicted by his own words and actions, proving he’s no outsider, just another career politician who has betrayed us.”
Former Attorney General Curtis Hill similarly targeted Braun for his previous comments are Carlson’s show on both Black Lives Matter and qualified immunity, calling for the U.S. Senator to clarify his stances.
“Mike Braun’s support for Black Lives Matter and previous comments opposing qualified immunity should concern every Hoosier. If Braun wants to gain the trust of Hoosiers, we need to know exactly where he stands on these issues. We cannot afford to have someone who campaigns as a conservative but governs otherwise,” Hill said in a statement. “Hoosiers are hungry for proven conservative leadership with a track record (of) standing up and defending law enforcement — history shows they’re not going to get that from Mike Braun.”
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
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Would like to provide input , which was
offered to congress last year for school safety program and to State Representative.
Just a rehash of his DC stance which ended up with no action. We don’t need to run our state in the same manner as as Congress. We will never get anywhere with that attitude.
This is such a bald faced attack on Mears, who chooses to not waste prosecutorial and judicial resources on small marijuana possession charges. We don’t have the jail space to jail them, the prosecutors to prosecute them, or the courts to hear the cases. If Braun and the Republicans want that done, then fund it.
But also required prosecutors to prosecute and courts to have trial for Republican legislators who drive intoxicated, and Republican judges who drive intoxicated or under the influence of drugs to their son’s home to “supervise” police officers who come to oversee an ex-wife’s removal of property from the marital home. Or Republican court masters who are arrested and plead guilty to out of state drunk driving charges with their children in the car but keep that information from the Disciplinary Commission which would certainly suspend their legal licenses.
So, yeah, fellow taxpayers, prepare for a whole lot of new courtrooms and judges and staffing expense to prosecute everything…
I’d take Republican efforts to remove “useless” prosecutors more seriously if they would start with the state attorney general first …
Few people deserve a “bald face attack” more than the ideologically motivated, willfully incompetent Mears. And that’s saying something, given that Rokita is indeed a buffoon.
I mean, if I were an absolute 100% partisan ideologue like Tim or Joe and believed every word the legacy media excreted (Indy Star, Chalkbeat, Capital Chronicle, and that new joke Mirror Indy), then I’d believe that the problem is stretched resources and that this lack of resources means we should have a pick-and-choose approach to prosecution. Like this will somehow deter crime better than simply meaning what you say and actually enforcing the laws. Just be kind to the criminals and their hearts will turn cartwheels. Yes, we’re seeing how that plays out.
But since their bigger problem is more about certain Republicans they REALLY don’t like not getting the sentences they feel they deserve (they want everyone to get the trump treatment for being anti-establishment) and less about the overwhelming increase in crime these last few years due to the ineptitude and corruption of establishment scum like Mears, they deserve every homicide they get. I mean, if resources are so stretched, is the best use of that money to aggressively pursue a single slimebag GOP politician? I mean, sure, let the law run its course but throw the book at someone for an out-of-state drunk driving charge? When homicide rates linger around their all-time high?
Utterly predictable. Like every other authoritarian regime in history, they want to punish political dissidents more than go after actual crimes. Because, in authoritarian regimes, political opposition is THE one true crime.
This is why the murder rate is so deliciously satisfying. Leftists are more authoritarian and violent per their nature. As has been the case for the last 60+ years, it’s leftists killing other leftists in our cold Civil War, getting hoisted by their own petards through the rampant urban dysfunction that they permit in their tiny little cesspool fiefdoms. Keep it coming. Every dead leftist makes for a more honest society.
Lauren, I missed where the Republicans wanting everything to be prosecuted are willing to pay for more prosecutors, more courts, more judges, and more jails.
Oh yeah, they’re not. Because they’re not actually interested in reducing crime. They’re just interested in a wedge issue that they can use to convince suckers they care about Indianapolis. Because if it comes down to spending one more cent, they lost interest.
Ryan Mears was an eminently beatable prosecutor. Marion County Republicans ran a terrible campaign devoid of solutions and deserved the beating they got.
Braun was a proud outsider when he ran for and was elected to the Senate in 2018. It is amazing how quickly that outsider has absorbed all of the features of a long time DC insider. He is a quick study, I guess.
Blah blah blah. And Trump endorsed.
Could you imagine teachers starting salary of $70,000?
it is really closer to 125k when you include the pension, fully paid insurance, leave time, etc.
Being a police officer certainly is not easy, but is it worth paying someone 3x the average salary of the city?
Not an easy proposition when more and more people are seeing the shambles that public schools are in and homeschooling is growing astronomically.
Despicable.
UnHoosier.