Election 2026: Sheriff Candidate Max Greene

Continuing with our “Election: 2026” series, this edition of our candidate interviews features Sheriff Candidate Max Greene (D). Leading up to the primaries, we will continue to release candidate interviews in order to keep you well educated as you make your way to the ballot box.

Publisher's Note: The Washington County Times does not endorse political candidates. Our mission is to provide balanced and informative coverage of local politics so our readers can make their own informed decisions at the ballot box. We aim to give all candidates a fair opportunity to share their views and connect with the community. This Q&A is part of that commitment to open, unbiased political reporting.

Max Greene

1. Can you speak on your background and how it will be helpful in the role of sheriff?

“The position of Sheriff is not to patrol the County looking for broken taillights and writing speeding tickets. The job is administrative - overseeing the staff and ensuring the health and safety of all the incarcerated,” began Greene.

“I’ve had a Supervision Certificate from IU Southeast at Helsel Metallurgical in Campbellsburg for about 1 year and a half. I was responsible for scheduling 68 people spread out over all 3 shifts – just like this job requires.

“As far as the Budget of the Sheriff’s Department goes, the vast majority is non-discretionary – so no incoming Sheriff can spend a million dollars on coffee and doughnuts to bankrupt the county.”

2. What inspired you to run for Sheriff of Washington County?

“The other Sheriff Candidates have been in Law Enforcement for years looking the other way,” he said. “ For example, our County Commissioners and County Zoning Board with their Taxpaid Attorneys are openly and willingly breaking State Law. These new County Laws that our Illegal Zoning Board makes take property rights away from Landowners without following due process. These are blatant State Law violations by the Washington County Zoning Board, and all our Elected Officials are looking the other way.”

3. What do you believe are the most important leadership qualities in a Sheriff, and how have you demonstrated those in your career?

“Lead by example, wrong is wrong even if it is being done by other elected officials. Working in a legal and ethical manner even when no one is standing with you,” said Greene.

“I have been active in the County issues for 15 years,” he added. “ I have been taking off work to attend the County Zoning Board meetings because I believe in fair and equally enforced rules for all citizens. When I saw open and outrageous state law violations against our citizens, I spoke up in public meeting after public meeting.”

4. If elected, what would be your top priorities as Sheriff?

“Changing the current local government culture to stop looking the other way for bad and illegal behavior,” said Greene. “Bad Leadership chases off good employees and is the main reason that County employees leave, not more money. We can recruit and reduce turnover of staff with strong ethical Leadership.

“This County has the advantage of a lower cost of living and family support system that can offset going to a higher paying job.

“Requiring State Law Compliance by our elected County officials and to show a moral standing and strong Leadership to enforce the laws on our citizens fairly,” he said.

5. How do you plan to strengthen relationships between law enforcement and the communities you serve?

“Accountability – we’ve had too many sex-capade incidents involving county employees where the female employees were terminated while the male employees were not,” Greene stated. “A full and equal accounting is overdue to restore trust.”

6. What steps will you take to ensure that deputies are held to high professional and ethical standards?

“Again – accountability. There was an incident report filed by the Salem City Police on December 6, 2022, involving a Washington County police officer allegedly in a standoff with the Salem Police. The report is there but no one can get an official copy of it because it is being suppressed by the county prosecutor. I would require this officer to face the same laws as any other citizen in the same circumstances and immediately release the report for transparency,” he said.

7. How would you handle a crisis or controversy if elected as Sheriff? For instance, the bombs that were planted on bridges around the county decades ago.

“We have great systems to reach out to the public through Emergency Management,” Greene said. “Just as with AMBER Alerts or severe weather road closings, we can communicate critical, time sensitive information to the public. We can also ask for assistance information almost instantly. There is no excuse today to not have a nimble information system in place.

“If you start building trust with the community and you have true transparency, the community will respond in a positive manner so long as you can justify your actions publicly.”

8. What do you believe sets you apart from your opponents in this race?

“When the Jail Facility was built the taxpayers were promised that the sheriff would take in other county inmates to rent out the empty beds.

“Renting jail beds brought in $786,541 in 2019, $324,427 in 2020, and then dropped to $249,394 in 2021,” said Greene. “How much does it bring in now?

“We need to look hard at generating out of county dollars to use as longevity bonuses to reduce jail staff turnover.

“You don’t get to quit renting jail beds just because it’s easier to ask the county council for Washington County tax dollars than to work for it.

“I have not been looking the other way when it comes to state laws, and I don’t go along to get along.”

9. Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to leave with our readers?

“Take a good hard look at the people you vote for, not just the party affiliation,” he said. “Your taxes keep going up while your Zoning Board tries to take more of your rights away while misappropriating your tax money to a Board that is openly breaking State Laws. 

“Even while seeing the track record of the current elected officials, they still get voted in because they believe that next term they will quit breaking the state law.

“I’ll ask, have any of the other sheriff candidates stood up like me or is it my ‘lack’ of law enforcement experience that gives me the ability to say a sheriff candidate should uphold all federal, state and local laws rather than just the laws they agree with or only the ones that the court system profits from.

“Ask if it’s okay for our elected officials to openly violate the law, why not the average citizen? I am the only sheriff candidate to go in front of the county commissioners to tell them to stop breaking the law. I am the only sheriff candidate to go in front of the county council asking that they quit funding county boards that are breaking the law.

“Apparently multiple years of law enforcement experience is to look the other way. If you keep voting for the ‘look the other way’ candidates, we can never pull our community out of the hole that it is in.

“Why is it acceptable for the county republican chair, who is also the prosecutor, to throw a candidate off the ballot in the primary election citing Indiana law requiring participation in the last two republican primaries, while ignoring a nearly identical Indiana Code – IC 36-1-8-10 – that applies to the county zoning board. Ignoring this law means that our zoning board cannot pass legal ordinances or provide legal hearings. It’s time for the double standards to end.

“I am a lifelong resident of Washington County. I served 4 years in the United States Army and I am a Combat Veteran. I have literally been put in harm’s way to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and all our citizens equally, including the Second Amendment.”