Background  information for those of you not living in Knox County – Mike Morris was appointed as Sheriff in Jan 09. This was the last item of business for me as the local party leader. I was more than excited to hand the keys of the Sheriff’s department to Morris after a rocky six years under the previous administration.

Under the previous administration, there was constant bickering between the Sheriff and other office holders, especially the County Council.

The first thing Sheriff Morris did after taking office was to call in the State Board of Accounts. After several weeks – and several findings later, their conclusion was simple, the previous administration had problems, but they were satisfied that things had greatly improved under Morris. Satisfied that the new Sheriff had made multiple internal changes that were desperately needed, they headed back to Indianapolis.

Now, a year later and ready to run for his first full term as Sheriff, his opposition is Vincennes City Police Officer Brian Hagen . In his first public statement to the Vincennes Sun Commercial this week, Hagen proved that he is not up to the task of running the Sheriff’s Department.

Officer Hagen said:

I’ve heard a few complaints on accountability. Something left behind by former Sheriff Luce”.

News flash to  Hagen, Sheriff Morris has already taken care of the problem .

“All those things (the Democrat candidate) says he would do, we’ve done. We’ve instituted tracking systems between the sheriff’s office and other offices as well as the court systems. Theses are policies designed to expedite the system.”

But here’s where Officer Hagen looses me, and frankly, gets up in my craw space:

From what I’ve heard, known and from the information I’ve obtained, that fact is I’m a little amazed that these were all problems of the previous administration, Hagen said. “But (then) Maj. Mike Morris was the No. 2 man in the previous administration.”

Um… hey Hagen, first of all, the number two man is the Chief Deputy, not the Major. You might want to know this kind of stuff.  Second, so as a police officer with VPD, should we hold you accountable for all the misguided moves the Mayor or the Chief of Police make?  Further, from the information that I’ve obtained, the very people that are feeding you your information are those responsible for most of the messes surrounding the previous administration. The messes that this administration had to clean up when they took office.

Hagen, you are simply grasping at straws. Stop, your embarrassing yourself.

But Hagen can’t seem to help but embarrass himself. He went on to say:

The Knox County Sheriff’s department isn’t the only law enforcement agency in the county. The drug problem isn’t only in Knox, we have to keep an eye on the whole picture. the break-ins, and thefts are not just the problem of Knox County…when someone breaks into someone else’s house on the block, it needs to be addressed because it will spread to the next on and goes on until the whole area is contaminated.”

OK. So let me get this straight, you are running for the Knox County Sheriff, right? Are you saying that the 35 Vincennes Police Officers are not up to the task of patrolling the city? Are you saying that you need the help of the 13 sheriff deputies to do YOUR job for you? The job of the deputy is to patrol the rural areas, to take care of those areas that do not have police protection. I bet your fellow VPD officers are more than displeased with you for calling them incompetent. I know I am. And I think that I speak for most citizens in saying that the officers at VPD do a terrific job.

You are correct, however, in the fact that the drug problem isn’t just a county problem. But if those 13 deputies are not out patrolling the rural areas, you will have more theft of anhydrous, an ingredient used to make Meth. Further, if you don’t have deputies patrolling rural areas, crime rates will go up in those areas . Explain to the fine people in Shelburn or Edwardsport that you want to take away police protection because you think VPD needs more help. Explain to the people in Wheatland or Monroe City why you would not patrol their areas because your looking at the “big picture”.

Officer Hagen, you have ran several times for several different offices. My advice to you is fully understand the job for which you are wanting the voters  to elect you to prior to actually running. It helps.