A bill that would allow for the militarization of the Indiana National Guard passed the Senate Tuesday, after seven Democratic amendments failed Monday.
House Bill 1343, authored by State Rep. Steve Bartels, allows the Indiana National Guard’s leader, the adjutant general, to establish a “military police force” that could make arrests, conduct searches and seizures, carry firearms and exercise other police powers.
The bill outlines that to become a member of the Indiana National Guard military police force, the adjutant general will make sure the members have security clearance and no felony convictions. Anyone appointed to the military police force has to complete army or air military police occupational training, according to the bill.
The governor may deploy the military police force “to exercise police powers throughout Indiana” during times of war, disaster, or “at any other time the governor considers necessary.” The governor would have to provide reasonable notice to local law enforcement agencies in the area, according to the bill.
Bartels, R-Eckerty, previously said the military police force will merge six different units that exist within the Indiana National Guard.
If a governor chose to send the military police force into a community, the mayor there wouldn’t have a way to stop the action, Bartels previously said. The bill also doesn’t give a timeframe for how long the military police force could be deployed, he said.
“I think this is very proactive. I think it helps us deal with situations that are unpredictable. It’s probably past due, in my opinion,” Bartels previously said.
On Monday, State Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, presented an amendment to remove the militarization of the Indiana National Guard from the bill. He also filed an amendment to state that the Indiana National Guard military police force could respond at the request of local law enforcement or a local government body.
State Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, presented an amendment to state that the general of the military police force has to meet or exceed the minimum standards of the law enforcement training board. She also filed an amendment that no later than 60 days after a deployment of the military police force, the adjutant general should submit an after-action report to the legislative council.
Yoder also filed an amendment to a portion of the bill addressing the military family relief fund to state that an applicant qualifies if he or she demonstrates difficulty in paying for transportation, communication, child-related expenses, debt payments and bills.
Yoder filed another amendment to change that if the applicants’ and applicants’ spouses’ combined federal gross income exceeds four times the poverty guideline, they would qualify for the military family relief fund. The bill language states that the combined income exceeds two times the poverty guideline.
All the presented amendments failed.
From the Senate floor Tuesday, Yoder said House Bill 1343 “is being presented as a public safety bill” that addresses Indiana National Guard powers, cyber units, imitation firearms, and armories and boats. But the bill has a “quite rewrite” of the military family relief fund, she said.
The military family relief fund isn’t a life-long benefit, but offers a one-time emergency grant so that a veteran or military family can pay for housing or utilities in the event of hardship after returning from deployment or combat injuries flare up and impact employment, Yoder said.
“We can do better than treating basic support for veterans as something that’s laced with shame,” Yoder said. “We have to stop saying that we already do a lot for our veterans when the language in 1343 simply does not do a lot.”
State Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said she’s concerned about the bill, given the recent federal agent response in Minnesota as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement.
“I know that’s not the intent, but it happened. Two people were killed that shouldn’t have been,” Becker said.
Becker said she received a lot of communication from constituents opposing the bill. A sheriff in her district also reached out to her to express his opposition to the bill, she said.
The sheriff told Becker there’s a reason there’s a separation between the military and police because one unit fights the enemies of the state and the other serves and protects people, she said. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people, the sheriff told her.
“I think that’s something we should think about,” Becker said, as she encouraged the senators to join her in voting against the bill.
State Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said he disagreed with the characterization that the military family relief fund portion of the bill was hidden because the bill has been publicly available and discussed publicly throughout the session.
“This is just good, responsible, fiduciary control of the state’s funding. This isn’t an attempt to try to make things hard on military families,” Baldwin said.
In response to the comment about “people killed who shouldn’t have been killed,” Baldwin said he would like to reject that conversation because it didn’t happen in Indiana and “happened under a completely different set of circumstances.”
“We can debate whether that should’ve happened or shouldn’t have happened, but this is Indiana. This bill was contrived before any of this media attention was drawn to National Guard presence in states,” Baldwin said. “We thought about getting better before any of that happened.”
The Indiana constitution allows the governor to deploy the state police and National Guard “nearly broadly,” Baldwin said. The bill allows that deployment to be “professionalized” with training on how to respond in situations that require a police response.
“The basics of this bill, they stand. We want to get better,” Baldwin said. “On Indiana’s worst day, the National Guard is going to be there to protect Indiana, alongside the state police and local law enforcement. This legislation is nothing other than preparing Indiana for its worst day.”
The bill passed the Senate 38-10, with Becker voting with all Democrats present against the bill.
akukulka@post-trib.com
