INDIANAPOLIS, IN - As the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) faces its lowest staffing levels since it began back in 2007, the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has called for several major changes, including bringing in the Indiana State Police (ISP) to help patrol the city.
According to FOX59, FOP President Rick Snyder said, "What we are witnessing is the coalescing of all the ingredients for a perfect storm." The top priority for the department is increasing officer pay, which the FOP said is outpaced by its surrounding departments. With other departments in the area, many of them are scooping up IMPD officers and getting them to transfer.
The plan, dubbed "Operation Firewall" by the FOP, also calls for the department to transition to 10-hour shifts so that officers will overlap during peak times. The other part of the plan calls for the ISP to be brought in to supplement the city's police force. Snyder said, "They could take on patrol responsibilities in the neighborhoods, on our roadways, and throughout the city."
The FOP said that it has reached out to Superintendent Doug Carter about the feasibility of the proposal, which is now under review. On Wednesday, September 18th, IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said that calling in ISP is "premature." He said, "We're not there. We don't feel like we're there and I think it would be a little irresponsible to say that because we're talking about people and people's lives including our cops."
Even so, Snyder said that the clock is ticking and right now the outlook for IMPD does not look good. He added, "When we start going to slashing services like the chief has suggested, we begin swirling the drain as a community. We cannot allow that to happen." The push for the proposal from the FOP come as IMPD hits a record low in terms of the number of officers it currently has.
At a budget hearing on September 11th, Chief Bailey said his department currently has 1.464 officers which is nearly 300 less than the 1,743 they're currently budgeted for. Numbers by the chief show that the department lost 71 officers so far this year and will likely lose more to retirements and transfers to other departments.
Bailey said, "Every single day there are vacancies on the shifts and right now we have not slashed any of our services to our community members that we won't be showing up on their particular run, but we're very close to that." Bailey went on to say that the city really needs more than 2,000 officers to "properly patrol and protect" the city.
He provided a comparison. He said that the Boston Police Department (BPD) patrols around 89 square miles and 650,000 people with more than 2,000 officers, whereas IMPD patrols 400 square miles with nearly 1 million people with far fewer officers.
In response to the FOP's "Operation Firewall," IMPD pointed out that the city is currently in negotiations with the FOP for a new contract. A spokesperson said, "IMPD Chief Bailey will take the necessary time to thoroughly review President Snyder's press conference and proposal. The City of Indianapolis and FOP Lodge 86 are actively engaged in contract negotiations, which do not involve Chief Bailey directly and will remain confidential until a tentative agreement is reached."
According to WISHTV, Snyder said that a police officer with 15 years of experience gets paid $85,000 per year with IMPD. That same officer could make $105,000 in Carmel, $112,000 with ISP, and $122,000 per year in Columbus, Ohio. He said that more than 450 of IMPD's officers already have more than 20 years of service on the force and more than 250 of those officers are age 52 or older. He said that this means IMPD could lose another 200 officers to retirement by the middle of 2025.
According to FOX59, FOP President Rick Snyder said, "What we are witnessing is the coalescing of all the ingredients for a perfect storm." The top priority for the department is increasing officer pay, which the FOP said is outpaced by its surrounding departments. With other departments in the area, many of them are scooping up IMPD officers and getting them to transfer.
The plan, dubbed "Operation Firewall" by the FOP, also calls for the department to transition to 10-hour shifts so that officers will overlap during peak times. The other part of the plan calls for the ISP to be brought in to supplement the city's police force. Snyder said, "They could take on patrol responsibilities in the neighborhoods, on our roadways, and throughout the city."
The FOP said that it has reached out to Superintendent Doug Carter about the feasibility of the proposal, which is now under review. On Wednesday, September 18th, IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said that calling in ISP is "premature." He said, "We're not there. We don't feel like we're there and I think it would be a little irresponsible to say that because we're talking about people and people's lives including our cops."
Even so, Snyder said that the clock is ticking and right now the outlook for IMPD does not look good. He added, "When we start going to slashing services like the chief has suggested, we begin swirling the drain as a community. We cannot allow that to happen." The push for the proposal from the FOP come as IMPD hits a record low in terms of the number of officers it currently has.
At a budget hearing on September 11th, Chief Bailey said his department currently has 1.464 officers which is nearly 300 less than the 1,743 they're currently budgeted for. Numbers by the chief show that the department lost 71 officers so far this year and will likely lose more to retirements and transfers to other departments.
Bailey said, "Every single day there are vacancies on the shifts and right now we have not slashed any of our services to our community members that we won't be showing up on their particular run, but we're very close to that." Bailey went on to say that the city really needs more than 2,000 officers to "properly patrol and protect" the city.
He provided a comparison. He said that the Boston Police Department (BPD) patrols around 89 square miles and 650,000 people with more than 2,000 officers, whereas IMPD patrols 400 square miles with nearly 1 million people with far fewer officers.
In response to the FOP's "Operation Firewall," IMPD pointed out that the city is currently in negotiations with the FOP for a new contract. A spokesperson said, "IMPD Chief Bailey will take the necessary time to thoroughly review President Snyder's press conference and proposal. The City of Indianapolis and FOP Lodge 86 are actively engaged in contract negotiations, which do not involve Chief Bailey directly and will remain confidential until a tentative agreement is reached."
According to WISHTV, Snyder said that a police officer with 15 years of experience gets paid $85,000 per year with IMPD. That same officer could make $105,000 in Carmel, $112,000 with ISP, and $122,000 per year in Columbus, Ohio. He said that more than 450 of IMPD's officers already have more than 20 years of service on the force and more than 250 of those officers are age 52 or older. He said that this means IMPD could lose another 200 officers to retirement by the middle of 2025.
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Comments
2024-09-22T08:52-0400 | Comment by: Raconteur
Let me take a wild guess at which political party is running Indianapolis: Democrat. You deserve to get what you vote for.