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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPolice patrolling downtown Indianapolis this weekend will be able to escort young people violating curfew to an unnamed “safe and secure” downtown location, authorities announced Wednesday.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department declined to specifically name the location of the site, but said it is where they will contact parents and guardians to pick up juveniles who end up there. Nonprofits focused on youth violence will be on-site to connect with families.
The announcement from IMPD and the city’s Office of Public Health and Safety comes after a string of shootings involving youth in the city’s core.
In the past three weeks, more than a dozen people, many of them teens, have been killed or wounded by gun violence in the city’s central business district. The incidents include a mass shooting on July 5 that killed two juveniles and injured six other people near the Indianapolis Artsgarden.
Officers will activate the detention center this weekend, when both the WNBA All-Star Weekend and the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration are scheduled. IMPD Assistant Chief Michael Wolley said the department could use the facility any time downtown sees an influx of minors, including on school breaks and holidays.
The curfew begins at 11 p.m. seven days a week for children younger than 15 years old. For teens ages 15 to 17, the curfew is 1 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and 11 p.m. throughout the week. It ends at 5 a.m. for all ages.
Beginning this Friday evening, officers will give minors gathered in public spaces a 30-minute and 15-minute warning, then announce that curfew is in effect, via patrol car public address systems. Officers may then escort any minors violating curfew to the unspecified location, where parents and guardians will be contacted.
In the case that family members do not respond to multiple attempts at contact from adults at the center, police may transport the juvenile to the Juvenile Detention Center for a curfew violation. Those incidents would be considered a “status offense,” which would not appear on the child’s permanent record.
IMPD said it would follow standard transport procedures for safety, which includes the use of restraints. However, once inside the location, “officers have discretion to ease those measures based on the situation.”
“This isn’t about punishment, it’s about protection,” Chief Chris Bailey said in written remarks. “We’re working with our partners from across the community to do everything we can to keep young people safe and prevent further tragedy.”
Wolley added that the department is using this moment to create a “positive path forward for our youth and our future” by connecting potentially troubled youth with organizations that can help.
New Breed of Youth of Indianapolis (also known as New B.O.Y.), VOICES Corp. and Let Them Talk Indy are among the local nonprofits that will have a presence at the center.
Six police officers who specialize in community engagement and mental health will work at the center. When asked by reporters, IMPD said the department does not have a specific capacity for how many minors could fit in the space. Instead, Wolley said the goal is that minors will go home before the curfew, so officers will not transport many children to the reunification space.
The Indianapolis City-County Council is currently considering a proposal that would set the curfew at 11 p.m. on weekends for all 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds. If it passes, the curfew would also become 9 p.m. on weeknights.
Correction: This story has been corrected with the proper ages in a proposal being considered by the City-County Council.
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Common you guys. Get a new head leader. Pay the cops what they deserve to encourage better recruits.
The cops make more money than most public officials. And rising, for like 70 years
Police make more than lawyers hired by prosecutors office so yeah..let’s pay them more
I think we ought to put these scofflaws in a camp-type setup until the parents pick them up. Don’t coddle them. They’re knowingly flaunting the law. If the parents don’t pick them up put them in the Juvenile System. . We used to call it Reform School.
Exactly. Put them into a jail or secure camp. Parents pay the bond to pick them up or put these delinquents to work to clean the streets and fill Boss Hoggsett’s potholes.
This screams impotence. If you are bad, daddy Hogsett is going to put you in timeout. That will show the gangbanger want a bees.
The Indianapolis City-County Council is currently considering a proposal that would set the curfew at 11 p.m. on weekends for all 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds.
Is that a typo..? So 18-year-olds too? Just wondering.
I hope they have passed a safe-sitter class since they will be baby sitting.
This problem doesn’t start with IMPD. They are tasked with enforcing the laws. They don’t make them. And until parents and guardians start to parent and/or we start mandatory programs in our schools, the problem will not go away.
And another program or facility where these kids are taken is not the answer either. There are tons of resources out there for people to take advantage of.