In Ingham, a law enforcement family affair

Eaton County isn’t the only one where voters are facing a choice for sheriff. In Ingham, law enforcement families are clashing with a matchup between the sons of Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth and former MSU professor Robert Trojanowicz, a national leader in the creation of community policing models in the ‘90s.

Trojanowicz

Meet Eric Trojanowicz, the Republican, and Scott Wriggelsworth, the Democrat. These two law enforcement veterans seek to replace the senior Wriggelsworth, who has been in office for 28 years.

Both men have criticized the handling of an evidence room controversy at the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department. Four years ago an unknown amount of evidence was destroyed when a sewer line backed up into the evidence storage room at the Sheriff’s Department in Mason. The result was some misdemeanor cases were dismissed and allegations were made that current Sheriff Wriggelsworth misled prosecutors about the problem.

The younger Wriggelsworth said he would conduct a complete evidence room audit and facilitate a review of cases as necessary. Trojanowicz has pledged that such a problem would not happen under his command.

Wriggelsworth is well funded in comparison to Trojanowicz, according to campaign finance reports filed Friday. Trojanowicz had $7,500 on hand, while Wriggelsworth had $31,115 on hand. Wriggelsworth also outpaced Trojanowicz in fundraising during the entire campaign, according to those same reports: $114,969 to $35,924.

Wriggelsworth

While Wriggelsworth may have to compete with the double-edge sword of his father’s name, Trojanowicz may have to contend with himself. In July he changed his personal Facebook page profile to a “Blue Lives Matter” image. That reference is a counter to the Black Lives Matter movement and considered in some circles a minimization of the number of officer-related shootings of African Americans, particularly young men.

Trojanowicz was unavailable for comment on the profile image, but his campaign manager, Danielle Ott, said he put the image up after a shooting spree in Dallas “to stand in support with his brothers and sisters in uniform.”