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Muncie City promotes three sergeants to lieutenant
Summary
The police chief recommended and the meeting approved promotions for Sergeants Gary Venata, Joseph Duckham and Justin Peters to the rank of lieutenant by voice vote. Each promotion was moved, seconded and passed; brief biographies were read for each officer.
Muncie City — The police chief announced promotions for three sergeants to the rank of lieutenant during a city meeting, and members approved each promotion by voice vote.
The police chief asked the presiding officer to consider promotions from the department's lieutenant candidate list and named Sergeant Gary Venata, Sergeant Joseph Duckham and Sergeant Justin Peters as the officers recommended for promotion. "Mister president, I would ask that, sergeant Gary Venata be promoted to the rank of lieutenant," the police chief said. A meeting member identified as D'Abell moved the motion; another member seconded. The presiding officer put the question to a voice vote and declared the motion carried.
The police chief read short biographies for each promoted officer. Sergeant Gary Venata was hired on Jan. 6, 2003, and the chief said Venata has served as a patrol officer, field training officer, Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) officer, traffic team leader and crash reconstructionist; Venata had been a uniform sergeant since Jan. 14, 2017. "Congratulations," the police chief said after the announcement.
For the second promotion, the police chief asked that Sergeant Joseph Duckham be promoted to lieutenant. The chief said Duckham was hired on Jan. 2, 2018, and has served as a patrol officer, field training officer and detective; the chief noted Duckham has been part of the hostage negotiation team since 2020 and was promoted to sergeant in December 2022. The motion to promote Duckham was made, seconded and carried by voice vote.
The third promotion named Sergeant Justin Peters. The police chief said Peters was hired on June 5, 2006, and has spent roughly 20 years in patrol, as a field training officer, K-9 officer, dive-team member and leader, honor guard member and as a uniform sergeant since Aug. 18, 2020. The motion to promote Peters was made, seconded and approved by voice vote.
All three promotions were announced from the floor and approved without recorded roll-call tallies; the presiding officer described each vote as carried after members answered "aye." The meeting record did not identify individual vote-by-name for the motions.
Attorney Mark Irvin was noted as not present. The meeting adjourned shortly after the personnel actions.
