Spangle Looks To Move Sheriff’s Department Forward
KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Having served the Kosciusko County area for many years in a number of different capacities, Joshua Spangle is seeking the sheriff position at the June 21 Republican caucus. He is the second individual to declare his candidacy for the position.
Spangle brings with him a wide range of skills developed through law enforcement training and experience, precinct committeeman, as well as board directorship and serving as a township trustee.
He is a father of two and a second generation law enforcement officer. His father is currently in his 35th year of service in law enforcement. Spangle has served as deputy sheriff of Kosciusko County for the past 15 years. He began his career 18 years ago as a patrolman with Rochester. After graduating the law enforcement academy and three years of service in Rochester he was hired as a deputy for Kosciusko County. Since then he has served the department in many different capacities, first as a patrol deputy before accepting the position of school resource officer at Tippecanoe Valley High School. After nearly two years as school resource officer he was offered and accepted the position he currently holds as a detective and the department’s only crime scene technician.
He has served the department in this capacity for the past 10 years. He sought out several different training opportunities, including certification by Indiana as a medicolegal death investigator and as a deputy coroner. “This training was crucial for me as over the past 10 years I have been called upon to work on some of the most high profile cases in Kosciusko County and provide expert witness testimony in many of those cases,” said Spangle.
In 2013 he was promoted to sergeant, and later named the director of the Kosciusko County Crime Stoppers program in 2015.
“Over the past few years I have worked closely with the Kosciusko County Prosecutors Office to expand the crime scene program with the formation of the Kosciusko County Major Crimes Task Force. Through this partnership I have obtained funding for valuable training and purchased equipment for the recently completed evidence processing lab.”
In addition to his work in law enforcement Spangle has served the community in other capacities. He has been the Monroe Township Trustee for the past five years, moving the township from a position of financial struggle in the provision of basic needs to its current position capable of adequately providing for the needs of the township, while also maintaining the lowest tax rate the township has had in a number of years. He developed skills in managing the budget process and worked closely with both the Indiana Department of Local Government and Finance and the State Board of Accounts. As a township trustee he was elected to the board of directors, and later the vice president of Multi Township EMS. “When I joined the board the EMS service was taxpayer subsidized and losing money. Seeing the potential for competition in the ambulance service due to local hospital expansions and our emerging community, we were able to sell a taxpayer funded service and put nearly $1.5 million of proceeds from the sale into local foundations. We did so while shifting the cost of ambulance service away from the taxpayers to such an extent that in 2019 Lutheran EMS service will not be subsidized by taxpayer dollars.”
It is this same forward thinking that has led Spangle to ask Tony Ciriello to serve as the department’s chief deputy if he should fill the sheriff’s vacancy. Ciriello retired as a deputy after 18 years of service to become the chief of Syracuse Police Department. He is familiar with the interworking of the sheriff’s department and local government. As past president of the Indiana Chief’s Association and his current role on Indiana’s Coroner Training Board, Ciriello will bring proven leadership to the department.
“Together we will strive to heal the fractured relationship between the sheriff’s department and other law enforcement agencies. This will ensure that we continue to be one of the finest sheriff’s departments in the state. I am extremely humbled and honored that Tony has accepted this role in assisting to move the department forward. I believe the two of us will work as a team to provide the leadership and community-oriented law enforcement that the citizens of Kosciusko County deserve,” Spangle stated.
Outside of work he enjoys spending time with his wife, Sarah, and their two children, Vivienne, 6 and Max, 3.