State police superintendent to retire
Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter will step down Jan. 13, the day of Gov.-elect Mike Braun’s inauguration.
Former Gov. Mike Pence appointed Carter in 2013, making him the department’s longest serving chief. He told media in 2022 that he planned to leave office with Holcomb.
The son of a state trooper, Carter has spent 40 years in law enforcement since joining the ISP in 1984. Aside from an eight-year stint as sheriff of Hamilton County, he served the department his entire career.
Carter occasionally weighed in publicly on issues related to policing. He came out against a plan by Republican lawmakers in 2022 that would have eliminated Indiana’s handgun license requirement. Carter said the proposal would put officers in danger and said the Republican supermajority was putting politics before safety.
Carter also acknowledged some systemic issues in policing in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Michael Brown while expressing regret to State Affairs for not making more arrests during the 2020 Indianapolis protests.
Carter occasionally commented on the decisions of local judges and prosecutors. His description of the Marion County justice system as broken for setting low bails earned a rebuke from the Indianapolis Bar Association. He also said Monroe County’s decision not to charge protesters arrested on campus was politically motivated.
He led the ISP’s response to Indiana University’s 2024 pro-Palestine encampment. Invited by the IU administration to uphold a last-minute change to its assembly policy, state police arrested 57 students and faculty for trespassing. The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office called the arrests “constitutionally dubious” and refused to file charges.
Carter said in April that the main issue leading to those arrests was antisemitic rhetoric he said he heard at the encampment. However, he declined to say whether that speech was protected, saying “let’s leave that to the lawyers.”
The Superintendent also took a central role in the state’s investigation of the 2017 Delphi murders, which led to the arrest of Richard Allen in 2022 and his conviction at a contentious trial this fall. The case fueled speculation on the internet and true crime podcasts about law enforcement conspiracies.
As the incoming governor, Braun will select Carter’s successor.
