Police to swarm streets this weekend

More than 300 police officers are expected to report for duty Friday and Saturday nights to help keep a lid on the kind of downtown violence that has marred recent Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebrations. “We’re going to deploy roughly 150 officers for traffic,” said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Deputy Chief Mike Bates. “We’re going to have officers in two-person details to just walk around and keep people moving.” Officers will enforce curfew restrictions for teenagers on streets after 11 p.m. In addition, up to 300 members of the faith-based community will voluntarily walk streets to keep pedestrian traffic moving. Last year, on the last full night of the event, 10 people were wounded downtown in gang-related shootings.