GREENWOOD, Ind. — The Greenwood Police Department is sharing findings from an independent study that looked into five of its officers who used their department-issued laptops to send messages containing racial slurs, explicit language and pejorative comments.
The investigation began in July 2023, which resulted in four of the officers resigning. In October 2023, the Greenwood Police Merit Board voted to terminate Officer Sam Bowen from his employment.
The messages include numerous statements that many would find offensive. 13News has decided not to release them.
The Greenwood Police Department then hired Dolan Consulting Group to conduct an independent, comprehensive study of on the traffic stops of the five officers and the rest of the department.
In the 113-page study, the Dolan Consulting Group said it found the five officers stopped Black drivers for speeding "at a statistically significant higher rate than the rate for white drivers," while the rest of the police department showed no bias in stopping drivers of any ethnicity for speeding.
Through its findings, the group said, "as a result of this evidence, we found weak and inconsistent evidence that these five officers of interest treated African-American drivers differently than they treated other groups."
The Dolan Consulting Group concluded there was no evidence to suggest the Greenwood Police Department treated any racial or ethnic group in a discriminatory manner after the five officers were removed.