State trooper responding to call ends up in handcuffs after police mistake him for criminal, deploy stop sticks

AUSTIN, Ind. (WAVE/Gray News) — A police chase in late September ended with an Indiana state trooper in handcuffs after officers used stop sticks to flatten the tire of his bomb squad truck.

But there was one problem: the truck wasn’t fleeing police. It was an Indiana State Police bomb squad vehicle responding to an emergency call.

The chase began when an Austin police officer, who was helping a broken-down car near a gas station, spotted an unmarked white truck with a camper shell pass by with red and blue lights and sirens.

“White truck with a camper, unmarked just passed us with red and blues and sirens going west, can you advise ... we have absolutely nothing on our CAD,” an officer said over the radio.

Dispatchers told officers all state police were at a meeting

Officers asked Scott County dispatchers to call the state police. Dispatchers reported back that all Indiana State Police units were at a meeting at the post.

“Austin units, ISP advises all their units are at a meeting at the post. It’s not them,” a dispatcher said.

Austin police started chasing the truck just outside town. The pursuit continued north on Indiana 39 as Jackson County sheriff’s deputies and Brownstown police joined.

Officers read the license plate, which came back registered to the Department of Administration in Indianapolis. The truck was a fleet vehicle, but neither officers nor dispatchers understood what that meant.

“I looked it up, but it just says they help purchase vehicles,” a dispatcher said.

Stop sticks deployed at a sharp curve

A Brownstown officer set up stop sticks at a sharp right-hand turn on the highway.

The man inside the white truck was identified as Trooper Rick Stockdale. He said he saw police lights in his side mirror and radioed to his own dispatch.

“Do you know what Jackson County has? They seem to catch up to me running hot,” Stockdale said.

The stop sticks shredded the bomb squad truck’s front tire. Officers drew their weapons and ordered Stockdale out of the vehicle at gunpoint, handcuffing him on the side of the road.

“I’m not, I’m a state police officer, bomb squad, going to a call,” Stockdale said.

“We’ve already made contact with ISP, and they said nobody was supposed to be doing anything,” one of the deputies said.

“I just called them, and they know I’m going,” Stockdale responded.

State police dispatcher realizes mistake

Police eventually connected the dots.

“Hey, this is Christi with the state police. I just figured out it is one of our guys going to a bomb call,” a state police dispatcher told Scott County.

“OMG,” said a Scott County dispatcher.

A second dispatcher could be heard on the recording, “She literally called them twice, why would they not tell us?”

Officers realized what had happened.

“Sorry for the big mishap,” one Austin officer said.

“I just spiked a f***ing state cop,” another said.

“We were thinking somebody stole a truck,” an officer said.

Trooper insists lights and sirens were on

State Trooper Mark Naylor arrived to investigate. Stockdale changed the tire while Naylor interviewed every officer involved.

Stockdale told the Austin officer to make one thing clear in his report.

“Make sure you get the right thing in the story. Lights and sirens. They were on. That’s the biggest thing, is that lights and sirens were on,” Stockdale said.

“We suspected it to be either a stolen vehicle or impersonating an officer. So, that’s what brought us out to here,” an officer said.

“I’m not trying to turn this into a huge mess. Any more than it has to be,” Naylor said.

Stockdale left after changing the tire. He arrived at the bomb call two hours after the suspicious device was first reported.

None of the police departments agreed to on-camera interviews. Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer said the department can hear local channels but can’t listen to them all. Indiana State Police said the same, explaining it was impractical to listen to every channel as it would drown out their own radio traffic.

No department answered whether they could hail each other on the radio.

The bomb squad did not file a report.

“Let’s all get out of here and forget this mess,” Naylor said.