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Early-morning violence in downtown Indianapolis in recent weekends has grabbed widespread public attention, prompting politicians on the state and city level to weigh in on the situation. But those in charge of public safety say they don’t want ongoing law-enforcement efforts in the area to become a political football.
Both the Indiana State Police and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department have bolstered their officer counts in the Mile Square in recent days, a direct response to a mass shooting early Saturday that killed two teenagers and injured five other people near the intersection of Illinois and Washington Streets.
It followed shootings in the previous two weeks that injured another six people on the Central Canal downtown and near Monument Circle. Before the recent incidents, the last time downtown shootings with injuries or fatalities occurred so close together on the calendar was 2022, when four people were killed between Aug. 21 and Sept. 19, including a Dutch soldier in town for military training.
Both agencies have increased downtown patrols for the coming weeks—a maneuver expected to last at least through the end of summer—and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, IMPD and other city leaders have taken on other approaches to curbing violence.
However, local and state officials say there’s little appetite to overhaul how downtown is policed.
“We’ve got to be careful that we don’t turn safety into some political issue—that there’s some fight back and forth between” Indianapolis and the state, IMPD Chief Chris Bailey told IBJ in an interview. “I’m a career law enforcement officer, and so is Superintendent Anthony Scott. Both of us have one mission—one mission alone—and that’s to ensure the public safety no matter where we’re at, and that’s what we need to focus on.”
Over the years, some state officials and candidates have suggested having IMPD hand over the reins to policing downtown to the Indiana State Police, either in part or entirely. The most recent high-profile push came in May 2023 from then-gubernatorial Republican primary candidate Eric Doden, who wanted the state police to have more responsibilities with local law enforcement as part of his “Capital Zone” plan.
While that push gained little traction, the incorporation of more state police that began with the string of downtown violence—a move without a specific termination date—is different than how state law enforcement is typically used in general downtown areas.
State police officers often patrol downtown, although they typically focus on state-owned properties such as the Indiana Statehouse and the Indiana Government Center campus. During major events, the agency expands its role through command operations, aerial monitoring and crowd control.
“The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is responsible for the city of Indianapolis—they police the city of Indianapolis,” said Capt. Ron Galaviz, chief public information officer for Indiana State Police. “We’re police officers; we can go anywhere the state of Indiana that we want. So, yeah, we’ll have troopers on a random Saturday evening find their way downtown, whether they’re patrolling, stopping to grab something or they’re there doing their job.”
On Monday, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said that IMPD initially requested assistance from the Indiana State Police last Friday night, largely to cope with an increase in traffic from Independence Day celebrations downtown.
The state’s allotment included dozens of troopers and several in ISP’s aviation unit—both drone and helicopter—that remained downtown until around midnight. IMPD’s Bailey confirmed to IBJ that he directly requested the involvement of ISP in policing, but added that those officers left after the Fourth of July crowds had dispersed.
While Braun has not been among the politicians to publicly call for a larger and longer-term evaluation of the Indiana State Police’s role downtown, he has been vocal about the value he places on the area being consistently safe for residents, workers and visitors.
In the Monday statement, Braun said that while the state police will keep providing additional resources to Indianapolis, he also expects local leaders to take more steps to reduce risk. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Prosecutor Ryan Mears, he said, “must do their part to protect the city and that means taking swift action to address this criminal activity and the bad actors who perpetuate it.”
Hogsett said during a July 5 news conference that the city would begin enforcing a curfew for minors, place additional patrols and cameras downtown and issue stay-away orders to dozens of people accused of crimes in the hope of keeping them out of downtown.
During an interview with IBJ, Hogsett dismissed the idea of IMPD relinquishing any of its responsibilities for downtown to the state police, adding that he’s “not at all concerned” that such a thing could or would happen.
“Don’t get me wrong: We very much appreciate the assistance that the Indiana State Police has provided, and I want Governor Braun to hear my thanks for that support loud and clear,” Hogsett said in response to a question on the topic. “But with few exceptions, no state police officer is down here after midnight or 1 o’clock in the morning or 2 o’clock in the morning. They serve a very valuable purpose [in the late-evening hours], but there’s a limit to what they see their jurisdiction to be.”
ISP’s Galaviz generally concurred with Hogsett’s assessment, adding that while the agency is willing and able to assist downtown for event security and on as-needed bases, there’s no interest in going beyond that purview.
He also said that while there have been other urgent instances where state police have been called to assist Indianapolis—and other cities—with policing needs, those have been few and far between. Perhaps the most prevalent in recent years was during the May and June 2020 protests that saw thousands of demonstrators and rioters flood downtown.
“We do a lot of assisting. Going back five years, we assisted Indy Metro with what was going on down in the downtown area, we assisted Fort Wayne,” he said. “We’re an assisting agency, either at their request or the direction of our superiors—whether that be our command staff or the governor, that’s nothing new.”
Rick Snyder, president of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police that represents IMPD officers, said there would be little upside to having state police take on a bigger long-term role downtown. He added that he’s never had concerns about a so-called takeover of downtown policing by the state agency.
Snyder said he believes that during Mears’ time as prosecutor, he hasn’t done enough to deter crime through crackdowns on certain offenses, particularly those related to gun crimes. He also said that sentencing for those convicted of criminal activity has been lax compared to legal maximums and what’s found in other communities.
“Police aren’t the problem,” he said. “The problem is, even if you switch to the state police, they’re going to still run into the exact same wall, which is this prosecutor and this court system.”
A spokesperson for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office did not return a call requesting comment.
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Whatever you do, just enforce the curfew and stop the killing. It doesn’t matter who does it.
Indianapolis doesn’t have a policing problem–we have a culture problem. Too many young kids (some with guns) and too few parents.
Do we have any metrics on the programs IMPD/taxpayers are funding that show any of the programs are making a difference?
Can we move some of those programs into the schools with anger management courses/programs? If the programs are going to make a difference we need to start with the kids who are early teens with anger management.
UGH!
Spot on. Throwing money in all directions will not fix anything.
God bless our men and women in law enforcement and public safety. They have a job which draws criticism no matter what they do.
I was a firefighter for 45 years for IFD. In all that time I was never afraid in any neighborhood in any situation.
All of that changed in a heartbeat in a matter of hours in the downtown riots, as I am sure it did for many of us.
Lawless gun toting CHILDREN will be the death of downtown and tourism/convention business.
For those of you who will bash me, all I can say is if you have never walked in our shoes, you don’t know.
It is a political and policy problem. When elected officials fail to do their jobs by not providing consequences for law breakers, and in the case of juveniles, their parents nothing will change.
As stated it is also a cultural problem where parents defend the lawless behavior of their children. Parents need to learn to be parents and stop defending their “precious little angels” and admit they are also part of the problem when they can be a huge contribution to the solution
The prosecutor is the problem. Have you ever seen him one time in media talking about his plans to assist in this????No