An Indiana State Police bomb‑squad trooper on his way to check out a reported device in southern Indiana ended up in handcuffs after local officers used stop sticks on his unmarked truck. The multi‑agency pursuit, which crossed county lines near Austin, wrapped without serious injuries but has since kicked off some tough questions about radio protocols and how official vehicles are identified on the road.
How the chase began
An Austin officer assisting a broken‑down motorist spotted an unmarked white truck with a camper shell and radioed that it had just gone past with lights and sirens running. "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," the officer said, according to WAVE. That call was enough to pull nearby agencies into a pursuit heading north on Indiana 39.
Dispatch confusion
When Austin police checked with Scott County dispatchers to find out whether the truck belonged to the Indiana State Police, they were told all ISP units were at a meeting, which was information that convinced local officers they were dealing with a police impersonator. As detailed by Altitudes Magazine, dispatchers told officers "ISP advises all their units are at a meeting at the post its not them," a message that kept the pursuit going.
Stop sticks and cuffs
A Brownstown officer laid out stop sticks at a sharp curve, shredding the truck’s front tire and forcing it to a halt. Officers then drew their weapons, ordered the driver out and put him in handcuffs. Trooper Rick Stockdale told officers he was a bomb‑squad trooper and was going to a call: "I'm not, I'm a state police officer, bomb squad, going to a call," and there were no reported serious injuries, according to WAVE.
Bomb call, plate lookup and missed signals
Officers read the truck's license plate, and a registration check showed the vehicle belonged to the state Department of Administration. Neither officers nor dispatchers appeared to recognize what that return meant in the moment. Altitudes Magazine reports the truck was an Indiana State Police bomb‑squad vehicle responding to a reported suspicious device that was later determined not to be explosive.
Why protocols matter
Clear communication and shared pursuit protocols are supposed to keep both the public and responders out of exactly this kind of jam. Model guidance calls for communications staff to alert other jurisdictions, clear radio channels and keep supervisors looped in from the start. The International Association of Chiefs of Police’s vehicular‑pursuits guidance, for example, recommends that supervisors control which units join a chase and which radio frequency they use, operational steps that could have reduced the risk of misidentifying an unmarked state vehicle, according to IACP.
The episode has already sparked headlines and pointed questions for county dispatch centers and police agencies about training, radio interoperability and how state fleet vehicles appear in local databases. Fixing those gaps will take both systems work and hands‑on training so that the next trooper racing to a possible explosive call is not mistaken for a fleeing suspect.
