Clark County Sheriff candidates Tim Deeringer, Dwight Ingle and Kenny Kavanaugh. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)Three former Southern Indiana police chiefs all have their eye on the Clark County sheriff's seat.Democrat Tim Deeringer is a small business owner who served nearly three decades with the Jefferso nville Police Department, including four years as chief.Independent Dwight Ingle was with the Clarksville Police Department for 38 years, including 20 as chief.Republican Kenny Kavanaugh is currently a captain at the Jeffersonville Police Department. He served 10 years as chief there.LPM News talked with the candidates about their goals if elected, earning and keeping public trust after the investigation and conviction of former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel, whether they support the jail’s role in ICE detention and how to reduce recidivism.Responses were edited for brevity and clarity, and candidates are listed in alphabetical order.Aprile Rickert: What are some things you if elected would like to tackle first?Deeringer: I would think the budget was gonna be one of the first things that we look at. We are gonna open that up and see what’s going on with the budget and open it up to the public so they can see where we’re starting at.I’m just saying that with Senate Bill 1, you know our property taxes have gone down. We’re gonna lose that money. So we gotta be smart on how we go about spending taxpayers’ money.Number two, I’d like to earn the trust back of the sheriff’s department, the men and women who work every day to serve and protect our community. They need to know that the sheriff’s got their back. I’m a person I don't like political pressure on no one. They have a right to choose who they want as their next sheriff. And I just want them to realize that, that’s who I am.Democrat Tim Deeringer is one of three candidates running for sheriff of Clark County. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)Ingle: Well, we want to keep the professionalism and bring it back. Jamey Noel has…made Clark County famous all over the United States and then before that we had Sheriff [Danny] Rodden that didn't go out well. And just get the morale up and get the job done. That's all you can do as sheriff. You got a job to do, and just take care of business.Kavanaugh: I’m all about leadership, professionalism and integrity. And you look at the men and the women of the department that are serving that agency, they are ready to be led and they are ready to be able to move forward in the best interests of the people of Clark County to be able to live the quality, understand the quality of life and working at those protections of public service that they are sworn with their oath to uphold and to do.AR: It’s been almost two years since former sheriff Jamey Noel was sentenced to prison for more than two dozen felonies including theft and tax evasion. There’s a different sheriff in office now, but people are going to remember Noel’s situation for a long time. What would you do to earn and keep public trust?Deeringer: We could never forget the Jamey Noel era. We can never forget what happened there. But we do have to move on. And we do have to move the sheriff department in the future.I think the next sheriff needs to have a good moral compass, someone who’s going to listen to…the citizens of Clark County.I think that’s a big thing. You have to communicate with them. Earn their trust back. Because that’s earned, that’s not granted, That’s going to take a while.One of the things I’d like to do and I don’t think it’s ever been done, I’d like to have a civilian advisory board, one that would report to the sheriff, let him know what’s going on in the community, also kind of keep the sheriff in check as well. Not just for the department, the agency, but for the jail also. Maybe have an advisory board there. I think that that shows transparency. It keeps everybody in check.Ingle: Well what I always did as police chief...you got to get out in the public, meet the public, be active in the public. And I encouraged all my officers, I [gave]them time off [to] coach baseball, basketball, I had a couple guys work for me [who] were high school coaches. Myself, I coached a junior high eighth grade team. And one of the [things I’m most] proud of is putting on the Southern Indiana Football Classic.[We’re] kind of unique in Clarksville, for no larger than we are, we have two high schools, Providence and Clarksville. And they played the last game in the season every year and so did New Albany and Floyd Central.It’s just…being out there in the public and knowing everybody and you bring your reputation up by that, by being active in the public.Dwight Ingle is running for Clark County sheriff as an independent. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)Kavanaugh: I had the ability in the month of August to be able to assemble members of the department and to be able to talk about leadership and learning and that department, of Clark County Sheriff's Office, It's about the mission statement of the department that’s already in place.Law enforcement officers that are working, whether you’re working in court security, whether you’re working in civil process, you’re working at the jail…or you’re working on the enforcement side…whatever facet of clark county sheriff's office that you are working in even the civilian employees, you support, you deliver that foundation for the men and women to do that job of public safety and we get into that quality of life and this is what the public of Clark County they are voting for to see that the sheriff’s office is working in the interest of the taxpayers, doing the duties and responsibilities and upholding that oath of public safety.AR: The Clark County jail has served as a detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement for about a year and a half. How do you feel about the sheriff's office holding people for ICE in this way and is that something you’d like to continue?Deeringer: I personally don’t like the idea of holding detainees, excessive detainees, one for liability reasons maybe and overcrowding issues. That’s not really a yes or no question, I mean I gotta get in there and see the contract.I know the former sheriff made that decision or the current sheriff now made that decision to hold them and what I got out of it was due to budget shortfalls. I’d like to find a way to get out of that to where we don’t need federal funding to pay our bills.I'd like to get to a point where we don't need to have detainees in…my jail.I want to look closer, yes.Ingle: Yes I would. I don't believe in sanctuary cities. The government passed a law and we’re gonna abide by the law. I don't understand why there’s even people that discuss that. If you don’t like the laws, vote the politicians out that made them.If I was elected sheriff, yes we’re gonna house ICE prisoners because they’re violating the law. [All] they’re saying is you have to be here legally. If you don't like it, vote the people out and change the law.Kavanaugh: Clark County jail has always had a federal agreement…There's been people here, I recall, there's been people here on immigration status. It's just now an addendum within that contract that says now that where the country is taking the position and capacity, they've increased the federal inmates because of the ICE detainers. Can you hold those? And the box has been checked by the current sheriff. And here's what we're doing, and that is happening and occurring while inside the existing federal agreement. So I have found it's not two contracts; it's just one existing contract, and it is a checkbox that you would call and say that's an addendum to the contract, and we're engaged and involved in this agreement. Republican Kenny Kavanaugh is running for Clark County sheriff in the general election. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)AR: What’s the sheriff’s role in helping to lower recidivism rates, and how would you do that?Deeringer: You have to have programs put in place in the jail for the detainees or the prisoners if you will, such as getting their GED or teaching them a trade or getting their drug or alcohol addictions you know under control to where when they do get out, they can have a job to go to and make them a better person in our society. Hopefully that would keep them from coming back. We have to work very hard on that. That’s one of my biggest goals. I know they got those in place now, but I want to build on them.Ingle: I think everything’s going along real well. I don’t really see a big problem there.Kavanaugh: What can you have in place? What can you add to the programs that are existing in place to ensure to give these people a better quality way of life? Also, mental health services, also addiction services, and also those programming services need to work around with components of job training. And all three of those components are coupled with…decision making to keep those individuals out of incarceration.Aprile: Is there anything I didn't ask you about that you’d like to add?Deeringer: This is going to be a very important race…you know because of the Jamey Noel thing. I just want people to look at the candidates, you know, and vote for the person, you know, not necessarily a party this time around. I mean, I think that's very important.Ingle: I can say this: There is three of us candidates running for Clark County sheriff, and the people can’t make a bad choice. Kavanaugh, ex-[Jeffersonville] police chief, great guy, Tim, ex-police chief and they’re both excellent police officers. They’ve got a great reputation and they’re just good people and both of them would do a great job.Kavanaugh: The voters need to be informed and need to understand that the next sheriff of Clark County has to be engaged and has to be forward to be able to take us to a new place, a new position, to where the agency itself has the ability to be able to grow and transform away from everything that's happened to occur previously and prior.Early voting starts Oct. 6, and Election Day is Nov. 3. More information is at indianavoters.com.Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County. ...read more read less