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Deputy Campbell graduates at top of academy class
Her classmates called her “Doc.”
And it was with clinical precision that Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy Elizabeth Campbell made her way through the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, graduating at the top of the class.
Campbell was honored in front of her 123 classmates — including fellow Deputy Jeffery Freeman — and other officers, friends and family when the 209th ILEA class graduated on Thursday.
The top five graduates in the class were honored, but Campbell was No. 1 overall with a 98.8-percent average across all coursework.
Campbell will also be honored by the Indiana Sheriffs Association for her good work.
“I’m extremely proud of her accomplishments,” Sheriff Scott Stockton said. “I think this is the first time in the history of the department that one of our deputies has been the recipient of this.”
Academic accomplishment is nothing new for Campbell, who — in addition to her work and training as a deputy — is close to completing her doctorate at Ball State University.
Campbell is studying research, design and statistics.
With this background, Stockton said he was not surprised at Campbell’s acomplishments, but still impressed.
“I’m not saying it was easy because there’s a lot of competition at the academy,” the sheriff said.
Campbell was also the 2015 North America Muay Thai Classic bantam weight champion and the 2010 World Kickboxing Association champion.
Not to be forgotten among Thursday’s graduates is Deputy Freeman, who made it through the physical and mental rigors of the academy while a huge event was going on in his personal life back home.
During the 15 weeks of the basic academy course, Freeman’s wife had a baby with her husband away.
“So he had to work through the scholastic and the physical challenges,” Stockton said. “All the while his wife was dealing with the challenges of a pregnancy and then giving birth.”
The growing family seems to have two reasons for celebration with Freeman’s return home.
Freeman brings a background of already serving Putnam County with both Operation Life and as a jail officer.
“Jeff is a current EMT and that brings good things to the table,” Stockton said. “And he’s got jail experience, so he has good experience for the people of the county.”
For the sheriff’s department as a whole, there’s also the matter of having two more merit deputies back on the road — about 10 percent of the force.
“Having them back means better service to the county and it helps with the scheduling problems we have,” Stockton said.
One of the senior officials at the academy commented to Chief Deputy Phil Parker that Putnam County has been sending high-quality officers to the academy recently.
Stockton credited this success to the new hiring process that the department has implemented.
“I think this is an example of the kind of candidate we’re getting through this type of process,” Stockton said. “I think the citizens of Putnam County are getting excellent deputies.”