A rash of I.C.E.

arrests.

One Hoosier community ends Flock cameras.

And Indiana continues the gas tax holiday.

From the television studios of WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending September 4th, 2026.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.

U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are making arrests across Indianapolis this week.

U.S.

Representative Andre Carson has opened a congressional inquiry to find out why.

Zak Cassel has more.

The social media posts depict I.C.E.

agents conducting arrests in traffic stops.

Their unmarked vehicles and some officers wear masks.

Carson represents the Indianapolis area in Congress.

He sent a formal letter to I.C.E.

and U.S.

Department of Homeland Security leaders with questions.

We're demanding answers on the scope and probable cause for I.C.E.

's increased enforcement activities.

We need to know the basis for these increased arrests.

His office put together resources and says while it cannot offer legal support.

It may be able to get answers for people whose loved ones are detained by I.C.E.

Local officials in Marion County say they were not contacted about the operations, and that the scope is currently unclear.

So what is the impact of the I.C.E.

arrests in Indiana?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel.

Democrat Kip Tew Republican Chris Mitchem.

Jon Schwantes, hosts of Indiana lawmakers.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capitol Chronicle.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So, Chris, with Indiana's Fairness Act aligned with federal immigration policies, should this be a surprise at all for Hoosiers?

it's probably a little bit of a less surprise because of the Fairness Act.

obviously, what that did was pretty much ensure that local governments cooperate with any federal or federal immigration enforcement agents that come in.

So I guess from a federal agency perspective, if you know, you're not going to have that hurdle of local governments interfering like you've seen in other states, which I think one could argue could actually increase the complexity and danger that some of these people would run into.

then, yeah, I guess you could say them coming to Indiana would be a little less surprising.

But I do still think it's surprising for the people whose backyard it's happening in.

I think it's really easy to criticize and or praise I.C.E.

agents when they're in other states and lands far, far away.

But when your local businesses start getting impacted, when your neighborhoods start getting impacted, and it does force you to change your perspective a little bit, and I think you can very well be in the middle of supporting these agents, but also in supporting and making sure they're held accountable to constitutional protections and things like that.

So, yeah, I do think it is surprising to folks whenever it starts happening on your streets and in your neighborhoods.

And we, you know, heard from the mayor here in Indianapolis that he was not contacted.

And other local, officials saying that they did not know this was happening.

You know, we are working in conjunction, with I.C.E.

as the state, entered the fairness act and and is it a two way street does you know, I have a responsibility to, you know, make sure that local governments are working together.

They don't have any respect for what the responsibility is or what is it?

I mean, we've seen what I.C.E.

has done all over the country.

I'm very afraid for our neighbors.

I'm very afraid for the city of Indianapolis.

If this escalates some more, because you've got people out there who are, barely trained.

I daresay wouldn't make it make it on the IMPD force or the Indiana State Police.

we've got folks that don't understand what constitutional rights are.

they're taking people off the streets, taking them out of their cars.

They are racially profiling.

all of that is happening now inside the city of Indianapolis.

Like it did in Minneapolis, like it did in L.A., like it did in Chicago.

we have an extra judicial, law enforcement agency in this country.

And it harkens back to me, you know, World War Two ended in 1945.

I was born in 61.

One of the lessons we learned World War Two was Americans made a huge mistake when we entered, Japanese people in internment camps.

And to me, this is what this feels like.

America is doing the same kind of thing they did back then.

We, you know, I've heard since the beginning, last year, with immigration enforcement ramping up that we're targeting the worst of the worst.

But how do you think, Niki?

we can determine that the people that are being arrested are indeed.

Well, at this point, we have no idea, because, you know, I.C.E.

is not answering basically any questions from media in terms of the scope, in terms of how many people have been arrested, what are their charges, you know, do they have other criminal cases ongoing?

I think a lot of Americans can understand that part.

If you know you're facing other criminal charges, but, you know, or are they being removed simply because of, you know, the misdemeanor of, you know, staying past a visa or whatever it might be?

so but we really don't have any of that information right now, which I think just adds to people's discomfort, you know, not knowing exactly what's going on.

And with, you know, Representative Carson calling for a congressional inquiry.

Do you think there's a chance that we will get any answers as to, you know, who has been arrested or what we can expect in the future as far as.

Not in this Congress?

I don't think.

And not even the call is coming from a member of the minority party, at a time of hyper politicization and polarization and it's it's unlikely, I think, to to bring illicit action, although we should point out that Andre Carson is not some snowflake.

This is a guy who came out of law enforcement who, before winning election to Congress, was worked in the homeland security apparatus for the state of Indiana dealing with counter-terrorism.

He used to chair the US subcommittee that dealt with national security and counterterrorism and making sure that our homeland was safe.

which is interesting because, of course, this is part of that whole broader apparatus.

So it's not as if you have somebody who was he was just waving the woke flag saying, we have a problem.

And you're right, we don't have data.

Which and that does make people additionally uneasy.

but we do have what Congressman Carson's office suggests, which was nationally in July, 90 more than 90%.

I think it's like 95 or plus percent of the arrests that I.C.E.

made.

Again, we're talking broadly, nationally, involve people who were not, bearing prior convictions on their records.

So if that, if you do any kind of, projection that suggests that that's something similar here, unless they've changed their procedures and protocols, one would guess that a vast majority of these individuals also have records that are devoid of any sort of a felony conviction.

I want to add one other thing that I think people need to think about, and that is that there's a chilling effect.

We're having people, kids not going to school because they're afraid, people who are citizens, but because folks are just looking at their skin color and taking them off the streets.

Everybody's scared.

I've heard, from reliable sources that in Hamilton County, every single, home builder, has a reduction in force in some place that some, some are not even able to be building houses right now.

So there's an effect on our economy.

There's effect on kids getting their education because it is it's doing what it's designed to do.

It's scaring people.

That's what they want.

And we it's not just here in Indianapolis.

We are hearing reports of other cities, across the state experiencing this.

But it does bring in interesting, you know, puzzles.

An interesting question about about the economy and about the business side of it.

Yeah, I mean, it it does.

Like I said, going back to when it's impacting your neighborhood, it does call for increased scrutiny.

And I actually do think, you know, believe it or not, you have to give the Trump administration some credit here.

I think, especially after the tragic events that happened in Minnesota and the new DHS Secretary Mullen, he has come out and said they have increased the training for I.C.E.

officers.

You're seeing a drastic increase in the amount of body cams being worn, and he really has doubled down on the need for judicial warrants.

And, you know, I'm not going to make somebody defend every single case of an illegal immigrant getting arrested by I.C.E., just like, you know, I'm not going to sit here and defend every single, you know, camera shot that you see that's coming in.

But, you know, I do think there is an a certain amount of, accountability you do have to hold these individuals to.

And you've seen that even on a national level, of making sure we continue to rein these guys in instead of just kind of giving them carte blanche to do whatever they want.

Well, as well, we've seen this week the City of Fort Wayne contract with Flock has been terminated, and those cameras are now offline.

Soon, the contentious license plate readers will be removed altogether.

Rebecca Green reports the 36 Flock cameras contracted to Fort Wayne police are coming down.

That is according to chief PJ Smith.

In a press release issued Monday afternoon.

A week ago, the city council voted unanimously to not renew the contract with the company for the surveillance cameras.

After months of heated discussion about their use, concerns were raised about the potential for misuse and the way the collected data is shared.

Law enforcement praises their usefulness in helping quickly solve crimes.

Fort Wayne's cameras were purchased using a federal grant, and police officials worried that the cancellation of the contract would put further funding awards in jeopardy.

In his press release, Smith says they have been assured that such funding is not at risk in the future.

So do you think we can expect more Hoosier cities to follow suit?

I think we will see more Hoosier cities follow suit.

this is one of those issues that actually combines the left wing with the right wing.

neither side wants a surveillance state.

They look at these license plate readers as a surveillance state.

When you have law enforcement officers who are abusing the system, it certainly doesn't, help or the argument for the system.

This week, there was a sheriff's deputy arrested for, stalking his girlfriend.

Well, at least using the technology to check on her 2000 times, in the allegation.

So, you know, we're going to have a lot of conversation about this.

I have heard that the legislature is looking at legislation to, at least clamp down on some of what's going on.

So it'll be an interesting thing that happens in the, in the General Assembly.

next session.

But I don't think there's going to be a lot of, cities jumping to do it.

Do you think we can expect to see legislation?

I mean, we just saw the city of, oh, we saw the state of Florida, you know?

yeah.

Make some action.

Yeah.

And you'll probably see 4 or 5 bills ranging from outright prohibition to let's get some guardrails and, you know, figure out how they're going to work.

And like I said, you're probably see two of each, three, three of each.

There will be a lot of people that want to be the face of this, I think moving forward.

But you also have to recognize you're talking about a general assembly that spent four plus years debating a bill about speed enforcement, cameras and construction zones, and even on that one, you have to give them like two warnings.

You can only have three, 3 or 4 cameras in the state at one time.

and they can only be when workers are present.

So they clamped a lot of these down.

And so whenever you see a technology like a Flock camera spread so rapidly, I think it's totally understandable.

While some cities are saying, let's take a pause on this, while we can try to get, you know, some guardrails around it.

And I think you'll see the general Assembly do the same thing with certain guardrails, because, I mean, it's been really interesting to see law enforcement defend this, because the difference between a Flock camera and a construction zone camera, right, is construction zone is looking out for a wrongdoing.

They report to the police, you get a ticket, a Flock camera is just surveillance, right?

It's collecting information.

You can perform arguably an illegal act on a Flock camera, but it's not going to trigger it right.

So that's why there's not as much scrutiny around some of these laws.

And so from a law enforcement perspective, you're saying we do use these to, you know, catch criminals, but also vindicate a lot of people.

It kind of reminds me of police body cameras, where I think whenever they were first introduced, a lot of people thought, we are going to catch a lot of police officers in the wrong.

When 95% of the time those are actually used to vindicate officers, that we actually didn't do anything wrong.

And I think they're trying to put that frame into the Flock cameras of, you know, we're actually going to potentially vindicate a lot of people.

But whenever you do have, you know, somebody in the state using it 2000 times to track his girlfriend, there's probably going to be going to be, the need for some guardrails.

I should this be surprising it on the I mean, we knew these cameras were coming up.

And if you look at a map, there's they are literally, lawmakers should not be surprised by this.

I mean, we Capital Chronicle wrote about this back in 2023.

And we reached out to lawmakers when, you know, the state police was running a million license plate reads a year.

And and we were wondering why there was no move to do some of these guardrails.

And they seemed just fine with it.

But now, you know, it's it's snowballed.

Now the public is absolutely against it.

So they're going to have to take some action.

And frankly, you know, a lot of Republicans are supportive of giving more tools to the police and backing the blue.

And so it's going to put them in a in a tough situation for some districts.

Do you think this is just inevitable, though?

Is this the wave of the future?

I mean.

Are we in the technology?

Yeah, I think we're going to see increasing pushback, just as we've seen push back with data centers and the notion of AI.

And I think data centers are the sort of the, the simple, object that people can where they can focus their animosity and their frustration.

I don't know what AI is, but I see that building that's being erected down the street and I don't like.

Yeah.

So I think this is another area that is potent politically because, as Kip suggests, it does unite the left and the right.

there are a lot of people who are suspicious of Big Brother and of government.

and it Fort Wayne, while it's I think the first in Indiana, is by no means the first in the country, there's a group, of course, there's a group of organized opposition called De Flock.

I was very careful when I, as De Flock, and they said there have been more than 100 jurisdictions across the country that have done what Fort Wayne has done.

Now, that leaves roughly 7000 to go.

there are plenty of, you know, half, almost half of the law enforcement agencies in the country have entered into contracts, but I think very few will enter into them now, and many more will cancel contracts and back away, because I think this is just the sort of the tip of the iceberg as we hear more and more instances, the New York Times says, you know, dozens, hundreds, even of police misuse instances.

It's not just an isolated incident.

But I do want to point out, I think it's important to note it is a good tool for law enforcement to solve crimes.

And they have solved crimes.

Theyve solved murders, rapes, assaults, all those kind of thing using that technology.

So I think lawmakers are going to have a difficult time trying to figure out what the right balance is going to be, and.

It'll be interesting to see if the the law enforcement advocates in the state House are vocal about it, of saying we actually do need this whenever the public sentiment seems to be so against it right now.

Law enforcement doesn't always prevail on the state House, though.

I think back a few years ago when you had the notion of people could, with checks on whether somebody had a weapon carry a constitutional carry.

And so you had police officers saying, I really do want to know when I stopped that vehicle on the interstate, if when I get up there, there's going to be a gun on the seat or it's going to be pointed at me.

And the General Assembly said, we understand your concerns, but we care more about the Second Amendment.

So that's where the battle.

Well, I'll be watching time now for viewer feedback.

Every week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question should cities get rid of Flock cameras?

Vote yes or no.

The last question posed to viewers will children be better protected as part of the social media settlement with Meta?

48% answering yes and 52% saying no, If you would like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.org/IWIR and look for the poll.

Indiana drivers will continue to see some relief at the gas pump this Labor Day weekend.

Caroline Beck has more on governor Mike Braun's latest extension of the gas tax holiday.

Braun is extending the state suspension of the gas usage and excise tax for the next 30 days, just two days before the current suspension was set to end.

He says his focus remains on providing affordability for Hoosiers, and that the state is on track to have more than $5 billion in reserve funding.

Capping our reserves is something that we can do, and do it with confidence that it's not going to impact road funding or other things.

Budgetary Braun is able to extend the suspension again after declaring his latest energy emergency in early August.

This latest 30 day suspension will last until October 6th, so Niki has been almost a half a year now.

Do you think we can expect the governor to continue to extend the gas tax suspension?

Yeah.

Every month he gets to, you know, trumpet the lowest gas prices in America.

And, you know, just lean on our reserves to cover that that shortfall, which if he does the whole way could be more than $1 billion, which we're just gonna, take from our surplus instead of collect this.

I think the concern is, is if you keep going on like this so much, people are starting to say, well, why do we have the tax at all?

Like, why do we need it?

And you know, the surplus on goes so far.

So I mean, that has been a question all along with money for, for local municipalities losing out on road funding money.

The governor is making good that money.

But, you know, I think there were some questions about whether or not it would be extended again after the recent floods and state spending.

well, I think it's safe to say it probably this one takes it.

You said till October 6th of one thirty day addition on top of that will take it past the midterm elections.

I'm just saying that I you know, at that point all bets are off.

but it's not as it.

Yes, the state may seem flush with cash and we do have a surplus and we do have a mechanism by which people get automated automatic refunds.

But our needs are so profound when it comes to infrastructure.

If you look at the civil engineers groups, I forget their proper name.

But every year they come out with assessments of the bridge qualities and the road conditions, and every state in the country, we usually get a D if we're if we're lucky, their demands are great and they're expensive.

So I don't think you can forever ignore, the collection of funds for this tax.

There would have to be that, moment where, you know, rhetorically speaking, you collide with the world's biggest pothole, and something has to give your suspension or the pothole.

I have to get one string metaphor in each week or three.

That was string.

Thank you.

Very good.

Well, Chris, when he extended it, last month and it proclaimed a new emergency, it was around, the war in Ukraine and the Canadian wildfires.

I don't think he even mentioned those emergencies, though, when he, And made this announcement yesterday.

Yeah.

My understanding he's just extending the, the current one, which I think anybody could tell you, one could sue and have a decent chance, I think, of potentially winning that.

But it goes back to the point of who the heck is going to sue for higher gas taxes.

I don't think that's going to happen.

So, yeah, the the the conversation actually continues to evolve.

There was, the Department of Transportation was giving a presentation to the state Budget Committee recently where they pretty much showed further evidence of just how much, how much cost it continues to take to maintain our roads, maintain our bridges, and mainly just because of inflation, but also increased technologies and all that kind of stuff.

But the increase was startling to the point where I think they were gently saying like, hey, it's really nice that, you know, we continue to have these lower gas prices, but the idea that, you know, our costs are going down and any kind of sort is just out of the question, and we're going to continue to need a consistent funding source.

And as far as it as a affordability issue, I mean, I've read that, as an average Hoosier, maybe has saved about $100.

that really making things affordable?

Well, you know, if if you're struggling to get by.

Yeah.

Yeah, it definitely helps.

And so I don't criticize that at all.

I mean, I think they'll be looking for ways every day to help people, make ends meet.

My worry here is that what really is happening is the war in Iran.

And the federal government has no, real plan to get us out of the war, Iran, or to get the Straits of Hormuz back to where they were before we invaded Iran.

And as long as that's going on, I think after the election, Mike Braun is going to, have a much difficult, more difficult decision to make with regard to this.

And like Chris said, I want to repeat, since 2015, the cost of repairing roads has gone up eight times what it was in 2015.

That study, I looked at it as well.

I mean, that's it's an amazing increase.

for every road mile, it's now at $44 million per road mile and used to be like $8 million per mile.

That's a lot of money.

That's inflation that we don't we haven't seen anything else.

And so at some point those numbers are going to collide.

And, you know, someone's going to have to pay the piper.

Yeah, I think both Republicans and Democrats used the word startling when they saw those numbers.

It was pretty wild.

Well, also this week, the Indiana Supreme Court is telling local clerks not to print ballots naming the Republican Senate candidate in district 23.

That's because the court has agreed to hear a case that could change who the candidate is.

Barb Anguiano has more.

Republican Senator Spencer Deery had his three vote primary win flipped by the state's recount commission in August, handing the victory to Trump backed Paula Copenhaver.

The flip was the result of several ballots being thrown out by the Commission for administrative issues, including missing clerk signatures.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case over whether the commission erred in doing so.

In the meantime, the court is ordering clerks to refrain from printing ballots.

Oral argument is scheduled for September 10th.

So, Jon, do you think Senator Deery has a good case?

He seems to have a valid argument, and more important than my opinion, it seems that the Supreme Court may think there's something valid to look at here, too, because it would have been easy for the Supreme Court to say, you know what the Election Commission has already done?

It's that's the mechanism that's set up by state law.

Thank you very much.

We're done here.

But you look at at the way the commission evaluated ballots and tossed out some ballots and some of them were not because of anything that a voter did or failed to do.

They were because administrators in the system, clerks and deputy clerks, might not have put a signature in the right place or something of that sort.

So if if in fact, I think back to you, made a reference to the ancient past with World War Two, I think back to the 2000 presidential election, where we had the hanging chads and people with my scopes and, and magnifying glass is looking at that.

And it was all about voter intent.

If we can tell the voter intent, if you go with voter intent.

But if you look at the argument that, for instance, that Senator Deery makes six more votes, would accrue would would come to his side of the tally, because they were tossed only because of administrative inaccuracies or failings, not because of voter intent.

So I think if voter if elections mean something and the Supreme Court says we really want to side on the side of voter intent, I think, to get back to your question is, does he have a solid case or a good case?

I'd say probably.

Does.

Will this case set a precedent?

Either way?

Yeah, it's a case of first impression no matter what.

I think there are clearly two different statutes that depending on which statute you're reading, you know, they conflict.

And that's going to have to be a decision.

Unless, of course, the Supreme Court says, oh, we really are.

This is past the timing.

But they could say, hey, this is out of our range or realm right now, but this is something lawmakers need to fix in the future.

I, you know, I wonder if we're going to see some legislation this January on it.

Do you think we will Kip?

I got a little different angle.

So they did drop ballots where both, Republican and Democratic clerk did not initial the ballot.

They threw those out.

And there they were not at issue.

the Deery folks did not, take that up.

They took up where the clerk failed to put the seal on, on the ballot.

And so it has been, decided by courts in the past that if failure to put those signatures on the ballot is grounds for denying it, the statute that you referenced is you're you're correct about it, but it uses the word may.

So there's discretion with the election.

May may throw they may throw the ballot in the May or may they have the choice to throw them out or not throw them out.

And they threw them out.

So they're going to have to set some precedent.

You're right.

They're going to have it'll be a case of first impression if they if they overturn what the Election Commission did, did they will be, making new law.

In my judgment, I think they may be if you're reading the tea leaves where you guys are reading it, that that may be what Supreme Court wants to do.

And, you know, I would I would welcome it because voter intent should be more important than clerical errors.

Well, that is Indiana we can review for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Kip Tew Republican Chris Mitchem, Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana lawmakers.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Week in Reviews podcast and episodes at wfyi.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI.

In association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.