The Elkhart, Indiana, Police Department has long allowed officers with problematic histories to stay on the job or even climb its ranks. Most of its current supervisors have been disciplined, a trove of disciplinary records provided by the city reveal. A fifth have been involved in fatal shootings. (Read our investigation.)
Windbigler declined comment. Elkhart’s mayor, Tim Neese, said police work, by its nature, can lead to complaints because officers deal with people in stressful circumstances. Garvey said he has learned from his mistakes, and that he’s a better officer now than when his career started.
The 18 supervisors with disciplinary records who have been promoted by Windbigler include:
Dan Jones was promoted in January 2016, during Windbigler’s first month as police chief. Jones had previously received at least seven reprimands or written warnings — and was suspended in 2005 for choking a person during booking, according to a disciplinary letter. “I appreciate your truthfulness and your expressions of remorse for how you performed your job that night,” wrote the police chief at the time. “You were right it was not your, ‘proudest moment.’”
Found at fault in at least four accidents — among them rear-ending a car, hitting a parked car, hitting a utility pole — Jones was once disciplined for how he picked his child up from elementary school, according to his personnel file. In his squad car, Jones entered a drive marked “wrong way,” cut into line, failed to properly secure his child and then, at a pedestrian crossing, failed to stop for a student holding up her stop sign. The police chief at the time made Jones write the school and other parents a letter of apology. Jones did not return a reporter’s calls seeking comment.
In January 2016, during his first week as chief, Windbigler gave a thumbs-up as he posed for a photo with Todd Thayer and three other men Windbigler had selected for top command spots. Windbigler tapped Thayer for assistant chief, the department’s No. 2 position, jumping him four full ranks, up from corporal.
Little more than two years before, Thayer had been demoted two ranks for making “inappropriate comments” about a fatal shooting by police. (He said an officer who opened fire could now check that off his “bucket list,” according to disciplinary records.) For Thayer, that demotion capped a series of disciplinary actions taken against him by three different police chiefs.
In 2007, as a sergeant, Thayer was disciplined for an episode in which police took suggestive photos of a woman waiting in the police station lobby for a ride. A corporal resigned, a safety officer was fired and six other officers, including Thayer, received five-day suspensions. Thayer was faulted for neglect of duty because he failed “to make an official report” of the improper behavior, according to disciplinary records. The police chief ordered him to get ethics training.
Thayer also was reprimanded at least seven times, his personnel file shows. The first, in 1997, was for neglect of duty, for failing to properly document an arrest and file required use-of-force forms. The police chief ordered him to get remedial training. Thayer’s last reprimand, in 2013, was for insubordination. Thayer declined comment for this story.
In 2004, while a corporal, Ryback shot and killed 50-year-old Stanley Creal. Prosecutors said police were serving a search warrant for evidence of drug dealing when Creal tried to hide in a bedroom. When officers forced open the door, Creal reached for his pocket, and Ryback fired. Police found some cocaine in Creal’s pocket, but no gun. A grand jury reviewed the shooting and declined to indict any officers. A week before the shooting, Ryback made news for using a Taser on an 18-year-old student at Elkhart Memorial High School. Police said the student was resisting another officer who tried to break up a fight.
Twice he’s been ordered to get remedial training, once for “entering a volatile situation [without] anyone knowing where he was or what he was doing,” and the other time for “poor judgement” in bottoming out his squad car while chasing a traffic violator. His last reprimand — issued in October 2015, three months before his promotion to lieutenant — was for “inappropriate” comments and “wrongful behavior” in front of subordinates. Ryback declined comment for this story.
