2026 Voter Guide: Marion County Sheriff

Samantha Horton: Today I'm joined by Tom Vaughn, the Republican candidate for Marion County Sheriff. Thanks for joining me.

Tom Vaughn: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Horton: So, just first to start off, could you just talk about why you decided to run for sheriff.

Vaughn: Yeah, I've been in law enforcement for 30 years. I was born and raised in Marion County. I have 10 grandchildren that live in Marion County. So I thought it was my, with all my experience and training, it just seemed like a good fit.

I started my career out at the sheriff's office. There's some problems there that, I think my experience and background can fix those.

Horton: And with that experience, I guess could you talk about what you believe is the biggest problem or challenge for the Marion County Sheriff's Office?

Vaughn: A lot of it right now is the leadership and their training. I'm a graduate of the FBI National Academy, so I got to go in with Quantico for 11 weeks. But leadership is one of the things that you really have to look at.

One of the things I tell everybody at Southport is, if we don't train our people properly, we don't give them the equipment they need to do their job properly, and we don't give them that support and background, we can't fault them if something goes wrong. That falls on us.

And after talking to a lot of the sheriff's deputies or deputies, we see a lot of that. They don't have, they might have the initial training, but they don't have that ongoing training, and they don't have the tools that they need to properly do the job.

So that's one of the biggest focuses. I think once you can get the whole department onto a plan, and you know, give them those tools and support. I think you'll see a better sheriff's office than we have currently.

Horton: And I want to talk to you about some of the big issues, possibly, that are on voters' minds. I know one could be the new state law that requires law enforcement, including the sheriff's office, to comply with federal immigration enforcement. I guess – could you talk about, a little bit, what you – how do you believe the Marion County sheriff's role should be with that enforcement.

Vaughn: Yeah, and you know, it's funny we talk about this a lot now. And like I tell them, you, we're voting in a law enforcement officer, right? We took an oath to uphold the law. We don't create laws, we enforce them.

But there are things that we need to do, as the sheriff and our jail, to make sure that the warrants, the detainers, and all that, are legal. So that's one of the things that we would look at. It's like anything else, if IMPD asks for backup, we are going to assist another law enforcement agency. The ICE is no different. We would assist them on that.

But I will tell you that when they bring those detainees to the jail, the very first thing we're going to do is make sure: Do you have the right paperwork? Are they illegal aliens that you can detain? And if they're not, then we're not going to hold them.

But it is the responsibility of the sheriff to work with other agencies and, and work hand in hand to make it an easy process. So as sheriff, I will do that.

Horton: I know, speaking of, I guess jail – I know with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, they recently sued the state due to its delays transferring convicted inmates to Department Correction prisons. I guess, can you talk about – the office says it's causing overcrowding. So, how would you handle overcrowding issues at Marion County?

Vaughn: Yeah, I mean, one of the things we built a new [Community Justice Campus]. One, we didn't build it for the future. We built it for what we had 20 years ago. I think there's maybe 50 or 100 beds extra. That's it.*

One of the things you have to look at is, we have a lot of people who are convicted of a crime and are supposed to go off to prison, and they end up staying in the sheriff's office for, or sheriff's jail, for years. And that does put a burden on the detention deputies and the jail deputies for the overcrowding portion of that.

That's something you need to work closer with. I think that's everything the sheriff's office has. The communication isn't very well. They don't work with the outside agencies well on when we change policies or procedures. So really looking at that, working with the correctional facilities to make that a quicker, seamless process to get inmates who have been convicted to their, you know, to prison.

*Editor's note: The new jail at Community Justice Campus opened in 2022 with a capacity of 3,000 inmates, 500 more than the previous jail. The current sheriff says today the jail is budgeted to care for 2,400 capacity due to the budget set by the City-County Council.

Horton: And I know another topic that comes up a lot is youth gun violence here in Marion County, and that's continued to draw attention from state and local leaders. What do you see as a path to reducing gun violence with the Marion County Sheriff's Office?

Vaughn: I mean, that's one of the big things is, I think we've gotten away from a lot of the community policing aspect of it. Mentoring the youth at Southport, we're very big on. We have a training center. It's got basketball goals, and it's got all this stuff. And we want the teenage kids, those type of kids, to come to us, and work through that.

We have a cadet program, where, if you're 14 to 20 you can enroll in this program, and you work with officers on that mentorship. You know, trying to get them on the right path. I mean, unfortunately, we have a lot of families that, the parents are working two and three jobs.

Those kids are home by themselves a lot. What can we do to give them a place, an outlet, a safe outlet to go to? Downtown Indianapolis at midnight is not the place they need to be. But I think if you look at the rec centers and those type of things, we've kind of backed off a lot of those programs, and it's more of, we'll just give you a place to hang out.

I think we really need to bring those mentorships back. You know, whether it's a pastor, a business leader, get everybody involved so that we can start work. I mean, they're our future, and if we don't get a hold of them now, gun violence is terrible.

Horton: And I know also with state laws recently passed making camping outside on public property a Class C misdemeanor. How do you see the role of the sheriff's office in enforcing that, or what you're, what you would see?

Vaughn: Yeah, and one of the things that, that's, when somebody says you know it's a Class C misdemeanor, they don't have to go to jail. They can be summons arrested, which means they get a court appearance. But again, where, where are we? Where are they going? If we throw them off there, they're just, we're chasing them down the street.

So again, I think we have a lot of issues, but we don't have a lot of community that will sit down and discuss how to solve these problems, putting people in jail for camping on the street is not going to solve our issue. It's just going to create overcrowding and more issues that way.

So again, you have to sit down and find out. You know, our shelters are packed. So where are we sending them? It's the same thing. We know we look at mental health — jail, once the mental health facilities closed down, jails became those hospitals. And that staff does not have that training or education to be able to work with that. So again, it's, jail seems to be a place that everything ends, and then we, we stop talking about it.

So that's one of the things that, as the sheriff, needs to be more vocal, needs to be out front in saying what's the solution. We know what the problem is. We have to find the solution.

Horton: And I know Flock cameras as well. Where I want to touch on those a little bit too. They've come under scrutiny. But do you believe that they are a benefit to your office? And should the city continue to have them or county in this [case]?

Vaughn: Yeah, at Southport we do have Flock cameras. We have two located in strategic areas. They are a very good tool. It's like any other tool that we have. If you don't have the right policies and procedures in place, they will be abused.

At Southport, I think some of the thing, with the Flock they have, to look at too is when you, the issues that we're having are the ones that the officers are putting the plate number into the system. It's not the normal running for stolen vehicles, missing people, all that. It's where the officer has the authority to be able to log that plate to track it.

At Southport, we looked at that right off the bat when we got the cameras. That has to have a case number attached to the plate, which means why are we looking for it? You know, what's the probable cause? All of that kind of stuff. Then that has to be approved by a supervisor.

That supervisor then approves it, and then that license plate hit is audited once a week by a major or somewhat higher to make sure that do we still need it in the system. Are we still you know continuing the investigation?

So I think when Flock came out, everybody got it. It was a great tool. But again, in law enforcement, one of the things you have to look at is the good part and the bad part, and how do we stop the abuse of a tool that we have.

So I will say, Flock's been around since like 2006. This isn't like a new tool that we've had. I think the abuse is just being more, has been more lately. So I think it has to have those guidelines in there. I know Florida's looking at the Senate or House to look at putting guardrails on that, and I wouldn't be opposed to that at all.

But I think again, with good leadership, you have to have those good policies and procedures in place, and then review them, and then make sure you're doing the audits to make sure that they're not being abused.

Horton: We have about 40 seconds left, but I want to just give you a chance. I know you touched on training as one of your big things. I guess do you want to add any more to that conversation in the last few seconds?

Vaughn: Yeah. I mean, like I said, I went through the FBI National Academy. I am a certified Indiana law enforcement instructor, since 2001. I think that, I always hated when I got a new job and the training was like a week long, and you felt like you didn't understand the complete job. Our reserve officers actually go through a certified training through [Indiana Law Enforcement Academy]. They're certified at the end of that.

I believe if we give the tools to the officers or deputies and make them emboldened to use them and understand what's going on, I think we have a better qualified group of officers and deputies.

Horton: That was Tom Vaughn, Republican candidate for Marion County Sheriff. Thanks again for joining me.

Vaughn: I appreciate it.