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Republican Indianapolis mayoral candidate Jefferson Shreve unveiled a crime plan Thursday that calls for gun control measures, the hiring of a public safety director and more support to hire and retain police to fill a 300-officer gap.
Shreve released his plans at The Vanguard in Broad Ripple, an area that has recently experienced an uptick in crime, including three homicides.
“Crime is rampant in Indianapolis—and it calls for systemic change,” Shreve said. “We’re on track to break yet another crime record this year. We don’t have to live like this.”
So far this year, Indianapolis has had 100 criminal homicides, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. On this date in 2021—the year that set the record for criminal homicides at 271—the city had 133 homicides. There were 116 by this date last year.
The candidate’s plan to regulate guns is similar to Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s recently-passed ordinance targeting firearms in Marion County. Hogsett, a Democrat, is seeking his third term as mayor.
Shreve said he would lobby the Republican supermajority at the Statehouse to create a law specifically for Indianapolis that would increase the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21; repeal permitless carry; and ban assault weapon sales.
These measures are also part of the ordinance passed Monday by the City-County Council at Hogsett’s behest. That ordinance would only be enforced if the Republican supermajority at the Indiana Statehouse changed a 2011 law preventing municipalities from regulating guns.
Shreve criticized the timing of the mayor’s plan.
“I—unlike he—will make this a priority of my legislative package on Day One versus waiting seven-and-a-half years to mention it after the end of the long [legislative] session,” Shreve said.
The council can also only create ordinances resulting in fines, while Shreve is pitching a state law carrying criminal charges in Marion County. At the Thursday press conference, Shreve said he had spoken about his proposal to the leaders of the Indiana House and Senate.
Shreve also said he wanted to IMPD to improve its “solve rate” for cases of violent crime, which he said has fallen from 80% to about 30% over the past eight years. He also called for more mental health resources to address root-cause issues of crime.
The Indiana Democratic Party has attacked Shreve for receiving an A-Q rating from the National Rifle Association during his unsuccessful 2016 run for the state Senate. An A-Q is the highest grade the NRA gives to candidate who has filled out a questionnaire rather than served in office.
Blake Hesch, Hogsett’s campaign manager, said in a statement that Shreve’s gun control proposal shows “he’s willing to do or say anything to get elected.”
Shreve said during his news conference the city’s gun problem is “too urgent for posturing,”
“I’m determined to give our police the tools they need. And to save kids’ lives here in Indianapolis,” he added.
Top public safety official
Shreve, who has previously called upon the incumbent mayor to appoint a public safety director, said he would appoint his own, if elected.
“A public safety director will live police, fire, EMS, dispatch, morning noon and night, data-driven,” Shreve said. “And be fully accountable to this mayor and the citizens of Indianapolis in ways that a mayor of a city of nearly a million people cannot do that well and properly.”
Hogsett eliminated the public safety director post in 2016 during a restructuring that created the Office of Public Health and Safety and eliminated the Department of Public Safety. Shreve said Hogsett broke the string of Indianapolis mayors who had public safety directors since the consolidation of Indianapolis and Marion County government in 1970.
The city now has a deputy mayor of public health and safety, who reports directly to the mayor and coordinates efforts with the police and fire departments.
In an April interview with IBJ, Hogsett said the shift away from a public safety director was to provide greater focus on policing needs.
“The Director of Public Safety had authority over Animal Care and Control, 911, EMS,” Hogsett said at the time. “It was inefficient, it was wasteful, and frankly, it meant that IMPD did not report to an elected official.”
Support for law enforcement
Indianapolis currently has funding for about 300 more police officers than the current figure of 1,528.
Shreve said the city must find funding to increase officer pay. One funding source would be the fines from Shreve’s proposed expansion of a firearm discharge ordinance to the whole county, according to his plan.
Under Hogsett’s recently-announced crime plan update, first-year officers are paid $71,000 while second-year officers are paid $75,000.
Shreve’s agenda also says he would “support law enforcement beyond funding,” by being present at police roll calls monthly. Another point in his plan would prioritize gunshot detection devices and well-lit streets.
The Indiana Democratic Party has criticized Shreve for not releasing his public safety agenda sooner while continuing to critique the actions of the incumbent mayor.
“The mayor’s coming up on the end of two terms, and I’ve been our nominee for two months,” Shreve told IBJ. “And as I said at the outset—and I had four pages of notes that I was working from there—I have had so many conversations with people involved in all manner, all levels of public safety issues in this city that informed some of what was distilled there.”
The Hogsett campaign released a statement in response to Shreve’s public safety plan.
“We had been looking forward to a debate over Jefferson’s public safety plans, but unfortunately we are still waiting for him to announce any. Today’s speech was a hodgepodge of repackaged programs that already exist and meaningless platitudes,” Hesch said in a statement.
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To the current and future leaders of the City of Indianapolis:
Please immediately hire a seasoned professional and criminology expert named Scott Newman. Newman served as the elected Marion County Prosecutor for two terms and was widely praised as a devoted and successful prosecutor by members of both political parties. Crime and societal decay does care about political parties – they just destroy a community from the inside out.
Please take action to immediately hire Scott Newman so that our community can have a recognized leader and proven expert as our public safety director. Thank you.
Shreve just proved how unprepared he is to become the mayor of Indianapolis. Lifetime republican and just have to laugh. This is what it has come to. (I would have loved to have been in that meeting with his advisors. “What can we do to separate ourselves from what has proven to be the most disastrous mayor and administration in the history of Indianapolis. I know let say the same thing he is saying.”) Can’t make this up.
Shreve and Hogsett both have/will have to deal with the same garbage the state legislature doles out.
Hogsett has been pretty competent given the budget limitations, and it’s telling how infrastructure projects have exploded with the money from Biden administration.
I will agree that it’s pretty disingenuous that 7 years in, Hogsett suddenly grows a backbone and announces that he will actually try to lobby at the state house for gun law changes. I also suspect that if Shreve did the same thing, he’ll at least be past the “own the lib’s” barrier.
Dan: Hogsett lobbied legislators about gun legislation six years ago. Two years ago, the superintendent of the Indiana State Police did likewise–begging them not to loosen certain registration/availability regulations. It fell on deaf ears.
The rush-far-fright isn’t new—it’s on acid since 2017. Trumpism trickle-Down is not a pretty thing.
I recall Newman has Parkinson’s disease, diagnosed several years ago when he was maybe in his early 40s. Is he up to this. I also recall he resigned as Ballard’s Public Safety Director with a year or two of having the job. I don’t recall the reasons. But if he couldn’t do the job for Ballard, why would he be able to do the job for Hogsett? And finally, I recall Newman was involved in some gambling corruption issues, first prosecuting and then suddenly dropping the matter when powerful figures in Indy mumbled and grumbled. Is he really the person for the job?
Gun control exclusively in Marion County is of no significance. Guns can cross county lines very easily. They already cross state lines with no problems. Until guns are licensed, as we do with automobiles and drivers, we will not have safe communities. It takes state laws, even Federal laws, that are strictly enforced, to bring down gun violence. Indiana legislators are not listening to the people of this state. The Mayor and the Fool are both just posturing.
I agree it’s a fools errand to try to make changes at the city level. I also agree that until we have check-pointed borders (nvever going to happen) between states, it’s foolish to enact legislation at the state level, but until a significant number of states enact common sense gun laws, nothing will budge at the national level, so you need to start somewhere.
We need to treat guns like a public health issue, otherwise nothing will change.
Interesting that Shreve has supposedly spoken to legislative leadership about his gun proposal for Marion County. Maybe he’s only been the candidate for two months, but his party has had a super majority in General Assembly for years and those “leaders” have done nothing to assist the state capitol or any other city on gun and crime issues.