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Hibler vying for sheriff's office
Steve Hibler is a Republican candidate for Putnam County Sheriff on the May 3 primary ballot.
Hibler is an accomplished senior law enforcement professional of 40 years and a highly-decorated 34-year Army combat veteran whose work is focused on providing safety and security in his communities through citizen engagement. His leadership experience spans globally. Driven by his passion, he takes pride in not only protecting and defending the Constitution, but also teaching its importance.
“I believe citizens need to be active participants in their communities and government,” Hibler said. “As sheriff, I will stay in contact with the citizens throughout the county and work with them to create the safest and most secure county in the state.”
Hibler began his career with the Indiana State Police at Putnamville in 1983. He served in many roles — trooper, operations sergeant, squad sergeant, assistant team leader on the emergency response team and assistant district commander. He retired from the ISP in 2012.
“Police is both an art and science,” Hibler explained. “The science is taught through academics, schools, courses and other opportunities to provide mandatory and elective certifications to perform the essential functions in law enforcement. The art is gained through the experience of doing the job and dealing with the often complex decisions required to keep the peace. My experience is gained from a wide spectrum of operating environments involving hundreds of thousands of police services, traffic stops, tens of thousands of investigations and problem-solving opportunities worldwide.”
Hibler held a dual career with the Indiana Army National Guard from 1982-2017. He was a senior military police commander. He has combat experience as a field-grade military police officer. He served on two overseas deployments: Bosnia, where he pursued war criminals; and Iraq, where he was chief of staff of detainee operations with more than 25,000 detainees. He retired as a colonel in 2017.
From 2011-14, Hibler was the professor of military science at Ball State University. He handled a successful 280-cadet program. From 2014-16, he was the police chief in Red Lodge, Mont.
Being an Indiana native and missing his Hoosier ties, Hibler returned and became the Putnam County Jail Commander in 2016-17. He supervised all jail operations in the 155-bed facility. He managed every aspect of inmate care and control. Plus, he implemented many innovative educational and behavioral modification programs into the facility.
“I started the My Steps program. I am proud to say that I graduated over 200 inmates to help them understand that by changing the people, places and things in their life, they can take the positive steps to make the rest of their lives the best of their lives.” Hibler continues, “As sheriff, I will reestablish these programs back into the jail.”
Due to Hibler’s qualifications in law enforcement, he was brought to the Town of Cloverdale in 2017 as the town marshal, where he continues to serve. He transformed the agency into Community Oriented Policing. He has reduced the drug culture through proactive policing and continues his work with intervention youth programs.
Hibler and his wife, Deborah, have one daughter, Alexis. They live in Greencastle.