Introduction
The CLB is wending its way through Indiana’s “Odd Cops.” If you missed Part One: Special Deputies, you can find it in Featured Articles of December, 2017. Town cops, or town marshals, are an oddity becoming odder as more and more incorporated towns opt to establish police departments.
Statutes
A town marshal or deputy is within the description at IC 5-2-1-2 of officers subject to mandatory Law Enforcement Academy training. A town marshal or deputy is also within the statutory definitions of “law enforcement officer” at IC 9-13-2-92 and IC 35-31.5-2-185.
IC 36-5-7 is the chapter pertaining to town marshals. Section 1 thereof references the available abolition of the office of town marshal by the legislative body. So long as the legislative body has not yet abolished the office of town marshal, it appoints the marshal and fixes his compensation.
A town marshal serves “at the pleasure” of the town legislative body until he has been on the job for six months after the completion of his “minimum basic” LEA training. When the marshal’s employment endures beyond that time he becomes “tenured” to the effect that his removal or suspension requires use of the procedure at IC 36-8 for city police departments.
According to IC 36-5-7-4 a town marshal or his deputy may exercise general police powers. The statute lacks mention of the territorial jurisdiction of a town marshal or his deputy.
Case Law
The issue of a town marshal’s territorial jurisdiction was addressed (to some extent) in Warner v. State, 406 N.E.2d 971 (Ind. Ct. App. 1980). The narrow question presented was “whether a town marshal is authorized to effect an arrest outside . . . the town in which he is employed.” At the time of the traffic stop and arrest of Jimmy J. Warner for drunk driving, the applicable statute (from the subsequently repealed Title 18) described the powers of a town marshal in terms of the powers of a “constable.” That is no longer the case. The COA held that Warner’s stop and arrest miles outside the town where Marshal Ligget was employed were lawful in terms of Ligget’s territorial jurisdiction. Without mention of Warner, the COA later held (during the applicability of IC 36-5-7) that a deputy marshal’s outside-of-town arrest of a suspect was lawful despite a town ordinance purporting to restrict most of his activities to the town. Hart v. State, 671 N.E.2d 420 (Ind. Ct. App. 1996) abrogated on other grounds at Fajardo v. State, 859 N.E.2d 1201 (Ind. 2007). It’s safe to say that the town marshal and his deputy have statewide territorial jurisdiction for the exercise of police powers.
Advice
The CLB can offer no special strategy for dealing with a town marshal or his deputy. They are “law enforcement officers” with statewide authority. Not even a town ordinance restricting their policing to the town limits will impact the legality of an arrest made elsewhere within the state.
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