INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD is making changes after a staggering increase in violent crimes in Indianapolis.
The mayor, the chief of police and the director of community and violence reduction say they have a plan. Part of that plan involves increasing the number of beats for police officers.
"The fact that we're going to more beats means the officers should have more time to focus on a smaller section, allowing officers to spend more time in neighborhoods building relationships. That gives them the opportunity to know the people that live there, work there, pass through those beats," said Chief Randal Taylor.
Police will expand beats from 78 to 106.
While overall crime is down, homicides increased by 39 percent. Non-fatal shootings also increased.
Taylor said it's going to take more than just the police department to fix the problem.
"It's going to require efforts on everybody's behalf, not only ours, but the communities and other resource groups to be able to get in and help with that," said Taylor.
Shonna Majors, the city's Community and Violence Reduction Director said COVID-19 has been a challenge for everyone.
"Especially our young people. They've been in their homes for months, there's no school, no extracurricular activities available and so all that energy has been pent up," said Majors. "When things started to lift, we really saw an uptick in the violence in our city."
Majors said she's been focused on domestic violence victims and getting them out of those environments.
Homelessness, food insecurities and other issues, she said, have also been amplified. This year, nearly $4 million is being invested in community-based crime and violence prevention.
Majors said this is the second year for the "safe summer" program for youth. This summer, there's a new campaign called: "Street Lights Are On" - a campaign encouraging parents to become more involved with their children through social media.
"We came together with community leaders to get this out especially during summer nights," said Majors.
Police say along with hiring more recruits, they continue trying to expand staffing in several units like the homicide unit and violent crime unit.
"Our violent crimes unit, which is a group of officers that tracks down some of our most violent people in our city. They'll be increasing their efforts to go after those wanted for domestic violence warrants, non-fatal shooting, robberies, homicides," said Assistant Chief Chris Bailey.
Bailey also discussed body worn cameras.
"Our hopes are to start equipping our officers at the tune of 10 per day in the first week of August with the full implementation by sometime late this year," said Bailey.
