A decade-long lobbying effort placed police inside Indiana hospitals and upgraded criminal charges for batteries against healthcare workers.
It started in 2013, when the Indiana Hospital Association successfully pushed lawmakers to give hospitals the power to create their own police departments. In the years since, the association has lobbied to expand the jurisdiction of hospital police and to enhance penalties against people they arrest.
Federal labor data does point to a need. Healthcare workers are five times more likely to experience a workplace violence injury. The association, which represents the interests of 160 hospitals across the state, said its members were under attack.
“It’s everyone from drug-seeking individuals to mental health individuals, families on either side of a car wreck and who’s at fault, gang individuals,” lobbyist Tim Kennedy testified on behalf of the association in 2013. “The old days when you’d call the guys down on the janitor squad to wrestle somebody to the ground, those days are over.”
But at the same time, advocates who spoke against the laws raised two clear warnings: Hospital police would be interacting with the most vulnerable among us and they would be largely shielded from disclosing who they’re arresting.
In fact, according to a Mirror Indy investigation published June 17, a majority of arrests at one Indianapolis hospital subject to public records laws were for nonviolent offenses. It also appears no one in the local healthcare industry is tracking what happens after people are arrested to understand whether police action was appropriate.
“This is going to disproportionately fall onto a vulnerable population,” Zach Stock, an attorney who opposed the most recent hospital security legislation on behalf of the Indiana Public Defender Council, told Mirror Indy. “Many of these people are in a mental health crisis, and their culpability is so much lower — if it exists at all.”
Inside a decades-long lobbying effort
After lawmakers authorized hospitals to have police departments in 2013, the hospital association and healthcare leaders returned to the Statehouse over and over with more requests.
In 2023, healthcare leaders successfully lobbied for hospital police to gain greater jurisdiction — expanding the ability of officers to make arrests beyond hospital property, and in some cases, statewide.
That same year, the hospital association pushed for upgraded penalties for battery against ER staff. Battery is a misdemeanor for touching someone in a “rude, insolent or angry manner” — including cases where there aren’t any injuries. Under the new law, if the battery is committed against emergency room workers, someone can be charged with a felony and spend up to two and a half years in jail.
Most recently, the hospital association rallied behind a 2026 bill that extended these penalties beyond the emergency room. Now, the enhancements cover all Indiana healthcare employees who have any “contact or interaction” with a patient. That could include medical assistants, front desk staff, therapists and other specialized staffers.
Since 2017, the state hospital association spent at least $761,000 on lobbying efforts during the years hospital police and security legislation were proposed — alongside other policy issues. That’s according to yearly disclosure records available online for the association’s lobbying expenses.
‘No one can hold officers accountable’
Unlike local, state and university police, Indiana law does not require private hospital police departments to publicly disclose who they’re arresting and why.
Mirror Indy’s investigation, however, shed light on an alarming pattern at the city’s lone public hospital: police at Eskenazi Health are arresting someone, on average, every two to three days. About 77% of arrests were for non-violent offenses, and the most common were three misdemeanors: criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting law enforcement.
The issue concerned Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal, who had told Mirror Indy that hospital police officers are “putting hands” on people experiencing mental illness and sending them to jail instead of treatment. He ended a partnership with Eskenazi this year, which now operates its police force independently.
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The Indiana Hospital Association and Eskenazi officials declined to answer questions about the sheriff’s concerns. The hospital association also declined to answer questions about the arrests at Eskenazi Health, which stem from the policies the group advocated for at the Statehouse.
Steve Cooke, a hospital association spokesperson, did share why the association stands by the laws.
“Patients experiencing mental illness or substance-use disorders deserve compassionate, evidence-based treatment,” said Cooke. “At the same time, the presence of a behavioral health condition does not eliminate the responsibility to protect other patients, visitors and healthcare workers from acts of violence or serious threats.”
Mirror Indy asked whether the state hospital association supports people being arrested at hospitals for non-violent crimes.
The association declined to answer that question. Cooke said the organization does not track arrests at its member hospitals or the outcomes of these cases, including whether people are ever charged or convicted. He noted that some crime victims may not come forward, and local prosecutors have discretion for charging decisions.
At the same time, the three largest private hospitals in Indianapolis with police departments — IU Health, Community Health Network and Ascension St. Vincent — declined to release information about who they’re arresting. Unlike Eskenazi Health, a public hospital, these health systems are not subject to Indiana’s public records law.
“Involving law enforcement is a last resort, and it happens only after other measures have been exhausted in situations where someone’s safety is at risk,” a spokesperson for IU Health said in a July 22 email to Mirror Indy. “These decisions are made with the well-being of everyone in the building in mind.”
Community Health Network, a spokesperson said, “seeks to ensure a safe environment for patients, visitors and employees who entrust their care to us.”
Ascension St. Vincent did not respond to requests for comment about hospital arrests.
These responses have raised questions about transparency and police oversight.
“If people are being secretly arrested, nobody knows they’re in jail and no one can hold officers accountable if they step out of line,” Steve Key, the former director of the Hoosier State Press Association, told Mirror Indy. “Hospital police should be under the same scrutiny as regular police departments.”
In 2021, Key’s organization supported a bill with provisions that would have required private hospital police departments to disclose public records, such as arrests.
Ultimately, the legislation died without a vote in the Indiana House.
The Indiana Hospital Association has not taken any legislative position, a spokesperson said, on whether private hospital police should be legally required to disclose who they’re arresting.
‘Not a lot of evidence’ upgraded penalties deter violence
During testimony for the 2026 bill, healthcare workers urged state lawmakers to extend the upgraded battery penalties.
A nurse from Ascension St. Vincent described how an intoxicated patient splashed blood on her, hit her and spit in her face. The man spent seven days in jail, Tracy Klinkhamer testified, but she was afraid for much longer to return to the emergency room.
“What brought me back was knowing there are patients who need my expertise,” Klinkhamer told lawmakers. “What would keep me there is the ability to do my job safely and the promise that people who assault vulnerable workers will be held accountable.”
One group, though, raised questions about whether the new law would prevent this violence in the first place.
Stock, the attorney with the Indiana Public Defender Council, told lawmakers he doubted the laws would effectively prevent batteries at hospitals.
“There’s just not a lot of evidence that bumping up a penalty deters conduct,” Stock said in an interview with Mirror Indy. Instead, he said, it can lead to more jail time and tax dollars spent locking people up.
Mirror Indy asked IU Health, Community Health Network and Ascension St. Vincent about the impact of these new laws on workplace violence. None of the hospitals shared any data about batteries against their healthcare workers. They also did not answer questions about whether these cases have decreased since the penalties were upgraded for ER workers in 2023.
The state hospital association also did not provide any statistics.
“An enhanced penalty is not going to be the end of workplace violence,” Laurie Gerdt, the association’s quality and safety advisor, told Mirror Indy. “But it shows our healthcare workers that we see them and stand with them.”
In the future, the association said, the Indiana Department of Labor will track the number of hospital batteries and whether any criminal charges were filed.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, which makes decisions about filing charges in criminal cases, did not respond to requests for comment about hospital arrests or the increased penalties.
‘We need to look at the root causes’
The topic of mental health also came up during this year’s legislative hearings.
In January, Jason Gilbert, IU Health’s executive vice president and chief nurse executive, described rising violence against nurses and doctors, including assaults and threats.
“They’re perpetrated by patients and families who are of sound mind, and it’s unrelated to their health condition,” Gilbert told lawmakers.
Mirror Indy asked IU Health to provide evidence that this statement is true, including any documentation or data the hospital possesses showing the majority of people who commit batteries against workers do not have mental illness. IU Health did not answer that question.
Lawmakers did add one exception back in 2023: the punishment is not upgraded if the person accused of battery is under a mental health commitment. But, Stock told Mirror Indy, people with mental illness will still be arrested and charged with basic battery — and the carve out doesn’t cover everyone who may be struggling.
“People are showing up at the hospital because something is wrong,” Stock said. “Even people we would say are in their right mind probably have mitigating circumstances because they’re stressed or sick. We need to look at the root causes.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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