Exclusive: “This can’t be some councilman for us?"

Inside one Carmel Republican mayoral candidate's sometimes complicated relationship with the city's police department.

When the Carmel Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Republican Kevin “Woody” Rider’s challenger Sue Finkam earlier this spring by a vote of 45.3 percent to Rider’s 29.1 percent, it did so amid a somewhat occasionally tense history with the local restaurateur. 

Among some rank-and-file officers, Rider, a Carmel city council member, had a reputation for cal…