Thread: The Public Eye, Reviewed

City Courts

I was more than a little disappointed in reading this week's column of Ultimate Truth, the Tribune's venerable 'Public Eye', when Scott Smith and Ken De La Bastide wrote this:

Unhappy that most of the current ticket fines go to the state, cities across Indiana are considering the same maneuver. Last week Fishers became the latest to move in that direction, with the town council voting to rewrite local ordinances to include offenses like speeding and running stop signs.

In the case of Fishers, the Tribune's information is patently false.

Fishers is re-writing its ordinance for several reasons, and none of them are remotely close to the Goodnight administration's justification for establishing a City Court.

Fishers found their officers spending an inordinate amount of time waiting to appear in Hamilton County's clogged State Courts, for which the town was paying large overtime bills.

Their answer to this quandary was to cite violators of certain Fishers Ordinances into Noblesville City Court.... not a Court in Fishers. This move is not a 'money-generator'... as is the supposed reasoning in Kokomo, but rather a cost savings.

It should be noted that, according to Indiana Code 33-35 et al, the Noblesville City Court is only one of 10 in the State which requires a Attorney to be elected as the Court Judge.

Jail Overcrowding

In the same piece, Smith and de la Bastide also attempt to smear Sheriff Marty Talbert for doing his duty.

But the other week, we were struck by something. The same day the sheriff gave us the latest update on the jail population, we also had to go through a thick stack of warrants sheriff deputies served over the weekend.

A week or two before that, the sheriff had hosted a troop of federal marshals on a warrant sweep through Howard County. And with hundreds of outstanding warrants still waiting to be served, the sheriff can basically boost the jail numbers any time he sees fit to send his deputies on another warrant sweep.

Talbert has been saying for months the County Jail is at near maximum capacity quite a lot of the time (all a good reporter need do is visit the County website and read the Commissioner's meeting minutes since Talbert reports the jail population regularly to confirm).

As I recall, he's made several suggestions, many of which have nothing to do with "a larger, multi-million-dollar jail addition."

Work-release, more in-home detention, and an examination of bonding requirements (set by State judges) have all been discussed.

It seems odd Smith and de la Bastide would accuse the Sheriff of manipulating warrant services (arrests) in order to boost his jail population... or are we forgetting the Kokomo Tribune is often oh-too-happy with Mayor Greg Goodnight, a politician not exactly enamored with the Sheriff.

The bottom line is: If a police officer arrests someone (either by warrant or in the commission of a crime), the Sheriff is required by law to jail them... and feed them... and provide medical care... and haul them back-and-forth to Court.

Is the Trib suggesting warrants and crimes be ignored in Kokomo?


NIK

Originally Posted by notinkokomo

City Courts

I was more than a little disappointed in reading this week's column of Ultimate Truth, the Tribune's venerable 'Public Eye', when Scott Smith and Ken De La Bastide wrote this:

In the case of Fishers, the Tribune's information is patently false.

Fishers is re-writing it's ordinance for several reasons, and none of them are remotely close to the Goodnight administration's justification for establishing a City Court.

Fishers found their officers spending an inordinate amount of time waiting to appear in Hamilton County's clogged State Courts, for which the town was paying large overtime bills.

Their answer to this quandary was to cite violators of certain Fishers Ordinances into Noblesville City Court.... not a Court in Fishers. This move is not a 'money-generator'... as is the supposed reasoning in Kokomo, but rather a cost savings.

It should be noted that, according to Indiana Law 33-35 et al, the Noblesville City Court is only one of 10 in the State which requires a Attorney to be elected as the Court Judge.

Jail Overcrowding

In the same piece, Smith and de la Bastide also attempt to smear Sheriff Marty Talbert for doing his duty.



Talbert has been saying for months the County Jail is at near maximum capacity quite a lot of the time (all a good reporter need do is visit the County website and read the Commissioner's meeting minutes since Talbert reports the jail population regularly to confirm).

As I recall, he's made several suggestions, many of which have nothing to do with "a larger, multi-million-dollar jail addition."

Work-release, more in-home detention, and an examination of bonding requirements (set by State judges) have all been discussed.

It seems odd Smith and de la Bastide would accuse the Sheriff of manipulating warrant services (arrests) in order to boost his jail population... or are we forgetting the Kokomo Tribune is often oh-too-happy with Mayor Greg Goodnight, a politician not exactly enamored with the Sheriff.

The bottom line is: If a police officer arrests someone (either by warrant or in the commission of a crime), the Sheriff is required by law to jail them... and feed them... and provide medical care... and haul them back-and-forth to Court.

Is the Trib suggesting warrants and crimes be ignored in Kokomo?


NIK

Slam dunk analysis, NIK. Thanks for that.