So far, Elkhart has reached $26.7 million in settlements to resolve allegations that detectives, including those ID'd as Wolverines, framed innocent people. Liability insurance carriers paid for all of it.

Annual insurance premiums have ⬆️ since 2021, from $96,260 to $148,221.

In 1997, Ambrose retired.

In 2022, 25 years later, the city reached a settlement to resolve allegations that detectives, including Ambrose, fabricated evidence to send a black man to prison for nearly a decade for a crime he didn't commit.

$7.5 million

www.indystar.com/story/news/2...

In 1996, Ambrose and another officer were sued again -- this time, for alleged use of excessive fatal force against another black man.

Again, the case was settled: $400,000.

In 1993, a federal jury found that Ambrose and other officers (several ID'd as Wolverines) violated the rights of two black men. They were ordered to pay $$$$$ in damages, although the city and its liability insurance carrier ultimately footed the bill: $172,000.

In 1989, Ambrose & other officers were accused of barging into a man's home & breaking his ribs. Case was settled for $10,000.

In 1990, Ambrose & another officer were accused of falsely arresting a woman (who accused another officer of beating her). Case was settled for $50,000.

Lawsuits and citizen complaints poured in.

Instead of instituting lasting reforms and ridding the agency of bad apples, officials resolved many cases with cash settlements. Allegations go away. Officers are back on the job w/o admitting wrongdoing - only to get accused again.

The arc of Ambrose's career at the Elkhart Police Department shows how officials failed to hold problematic officers accountable back in the '80s/'90s, when a group of officers called the Wolverines existed.

Ambrose denied being part of the group. 11 former officers said he was.

Princess Spencer said she watched the same scene unfold many times during her 3 years as an Elkhart police officer: Swarm the city's predominantly Black neighborhood. Arrest anyone who runs.

"They just take that power," she said, "and abuse the hell out of it."

Former officer Richard Urban said members of the Wolverines competed on who could arrest the most people during an overnight shift.

They were "systematically looking for people. Black people."

Larry Towns, a former Elkhart police captain, said it was well known for years that inmates taken to the Elkhart Police Department's detention center were "treated worse" than in other facilities.

"That was the reputation and everybody took pride in that and knew that."

Former officers describe an environment where racism, brutality were tolerated, where Black residents were seen as "undesirables." The Wolverines worked with an us-versus-them mentality.

"Them," a former officer said, was anyone who crossed the officers.

And anyone who was Black.

They used Elkhart's Black neighborhoods as their playground, sometimes looking to "kick some ass" or competing to see who could make the most arrests.

They used excessive force — a reputation a former captain said "everybody took pride in."

Some officers identified by former colleagues as Wolverines espoused racist beliefs and used slurs against people of color.

One former officer said a member of the Wolverines trashed his car and told a colleague he wasn’t worried: "They’ll think the n------ did it."

Those who oppose it say there’s no need to repeal the death penalty in a state that already uses it very rarely. There are 7 inmates on death row in Indiana — pretty low compared to other states with comparable populations. Alabama has 167. Arizona has 116. Louisiana has 63.

The bill is being pushed by conservatives and religious leaders who are coming at the issue from a pro-life perspective. Critics of capital punishment also point to recent exonerations and to the costs of litigating death penalty cases and recent