Sgt. Jesse Chambers, The Dog Kicker.

On November 29, 2021, at approximately 7:05 P.M., the Vigo County Central Dispatch received a call complaining of an aggressive white pit bull in the 1700 block of Ohio Street that had been “charging at everyone that goes by. RP advised that he has bitten a child and a mailman in the past and is very very aggressive.” The reporting person also advised that this is an ongoing problem.
A check revealed that on May 2, 2020, at approximately 7:50 P.M., officers were sent to the same address for a white pit bull that had bitten an 11 year old girl. At that time, officers reported that an adult female resident had indicated that her daughter had left the gate open and the dog had gotten out and went after the juvenile victim. The adult female was cited for Failure to Restrain a Dog Resulting in Bite or Attack.
This is the information received and the call history known to officers when responding to this call. Any claim that officers were responding to a reported burglary is untrue.
Upon learning of this video, we contacted the male resident and asked multiple times if he wished to make a complaint, and he declined.
The department has also provided all video, reports, and body camera videos to the Vigo County Prosecutor’s Office to review and determine if any laws were broken. This is our policy to ensure that we are not investigating our own employees when there are allegations that may violate law. Having viewed all of the videos in their entirety and all reports, the prosecutor’s office has provided us a written determination that no criminal activity was found to have occurred on the part of the officer. The prosecutor’s office also independently contacted the male resident and offered to meet with him or any member of his family to allow them to view the full body camera footage. The prosecutor’s office indicated that this offer was declined.
While the conduct in the video has been determined by the prosecutor to not constitute a crime by the officer and the body camera footage is in sharp contrast to the original social media narrative, we will still be objectively evaluating the conduct to see if it violates any departmental policies or directives. During this process, the sergeant will be placed on administrative duty assignment.