Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, responds to a fellow committee member on March 11, 2025. Whitney Downard | Indiana Capital Chronicle
State involvement in local investigations took center stage, with senators contemplating bills that sought to eliminate the state’s backlog of rape kits as well as an effort that could help counties with legal costs but erode local prosecutor discretion.
Neither bill advanced Tuesday because amendments are still being drafted. Neither bill got any pushback in testimony, though senators questioned the specifics surrounding both efforts.
Rape kits
Rep. Becky Cash, who authored House Bill 1413, said there was a six- to eight-month wait for rape kit processing in Indiana, which crime technicians and law enforcement attributed to the lack of equipment and staff.
“The money would specifically go through the Indiana State Police, who will be the ones to handle the grant, and to the already existing Indiana crime labs,” said Cash, R-Zionsville. “Right now, the backlog is about 600-800 kits. Several years ago, there was a grant from the federal government that actually took our backlog that was in the thousands … down to where we’re at now.
“So we’ve made enormous progress.”
These kits in the backlog are ones that don’t have a police report attached, Cash said, meaning they aren’t required to be tested under state law.
Dollars from the newly created fund could go toward salaries for technicians in the highly competitive field, equipment purchases and hiring, Cash said. The fund can also accept donations and grants.
The bill also gives investigators a processing deadline: Jan. 1, 2027. By Nov. 1 of each year, the state police shall report on the fund to the General Assembly.
The committee’s chair, Sen. Aaron Freeman, said that both bills would be held back for amendments and voted on in a later meeting. Tackling the rape kit backlog and increasing prosecutorial oversight would require the state to spend dollars in a tight budget session.
In the House, the budget-drafting committee created a line item to fund Cash’s effort, which would appropriate $2.5 million.
County prosecutor funding
House Bill 1006 could potentially cost up to $19.5 million annually, depending on county requests for assistance.
Freeman, the Senate sponsor of House Bill 1006, said the bill created a special prosecutor unit with an associated fund, which proponents hope will address the state’s attorney shortage.
Under House Bill 1006, counties could be partially reimbursed for deputy prosecutors, administrative expenses and public defenders.
“I think there’s no more fundamental duty of government than to adequately fund our frontline prosecutors and those that are keeping us safe,” said Freeman, R-Indianapolis.
He pitched the unit as one that could assist smaller counties after crimes like the 2017 double homicide of Abigail Williams and Liberty German in Delphi, Indiana.
“… God bless some of our smaller counties, but when you get into some of those smaller counties and a horrendous crime is committed, it is a serious strain. Not only on budgets, but on the manpower and the expertise and skill of that prosecutor’s office and the public defenders,” Freeman said. “I don’t see this as some ‘super’ prosecutor’s office that’s going to sweep in and take over … but I do see the need for some supplemental help in situations like that.”
A future amendment could put some guardrails on the number of deputy prosecutors that could be funded for specific counties.
But the most controversial portion of the bill would create a review board for noncompliant prosecutors that would target elected officials who decline to prosecute certain laws. Past efforts have specifically cited the actions of Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat, who has said his office won’t criminally prosecute possession of one ounce or less of marijuana and won’t “waste one resource” prosecuting women or medical professionals involved in abortion cases.
Courtney Curtis, the assistant executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, said her organization supported the bill, but “we do not feel that there should be a prosecutor review board.”
“But if there is going to be one, we would like to be the ones to do it and feel like we would be the ones to do it best,” Curtis said.
IPAC would run the special prosecutor unit and determine if a county has a noncompliant prosecuting attorney. This isn’t the state’s — or even Freeman’s — first attempt to pass a law concerning noncompliant attorneys.
The bulk of Curtis’s testimony focused on the beleaguered attorney workforce and how the proposal could shore up low government salaries.
Roughly 800 prosecuting attorneys are doing the work of 1,200, Curtis said, and while some turnover was expected, “we don’t have enough new people coming in.”
“There are very few people who go to law school thinking, ‘I’m going to be a prosecutor or public defender.’ And even fewer who leave and graduate and are still going to do that goal,” Curtis said. “When you’re a prosecutor, it’s very heavy work emotionally. You encounter people who are in the worst times of their lives.”
“… not everybody’s cut out for it.”
But the work can’t stop simply because there’s a shortage of prosecutors. Curtis said that while crime is down nationwide, violent crime has ticked up in Indiana, especially legally intensive cases like murder.
“There comes a time when it’s too much work for the amount of money (prosecutors) currently make,” Curtis said.
The mean salary for a deputy prosecutor is $89,514, according to the bill’s fiscal note, while a privately employed attorney can make thousands more. However, prosecutors are singled out for a special retirement fund while public defenders are in the same fund as other state employees.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
