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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is calling on Mayor Joe Hogsett to “reimagine” the role of police in Indianapolis and shift funding away from law enforcement into community-based initiatives.
The ACLU on Tuesday issued a written statement that said Indianapolis “must stop trying to tweak a rotten system whose roots are riddled with racism.”
The group said a revised use-of-force policy endorsed last week by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Randal Taylor is not enough to bring fundamental change to law enforcement in the city.
The revised policy would ban chokeholds, mandate a duty to intervene and report whenever another officer uses inappropriate force, and prohibiting shooting from a moving vehicle, among other things.
“Mayor Hogsett must commit to reimagining the role police play in our city, and that role has to be smaller, more circumscribed, and less funded with taxpayer dollars,” Jane Henegar, executive director at the ALCU of Indiana, said in written comments. “IMPD’s budget makes up more than 30% of the city’s budget. As Mayor Hogsett works with the city council to begin the 2021 budget process, we must shift resources away from law enforcement and towards Black and Brown community-based initiatives that support true safety, health, and well-being.”
“Budgets are not created in a vacuum,” Henegar added. “They can be changed through targeted advocacy and organizing. We can demand that our local officials, including city council members and mayors, stop allocating funds for more officers and more militarized equipment.”
Across the country, there have been calls to defund and disband police departments following nationwide protests after George Floyd, a black man, died while being restrained by a Minneapolis police officer who has since been charged with second-degree murder.
Over the weekend, the Minneapolis City Council announced its intent to defund and disband the city’s police department.
Supporters of the “Defund the Police” movement say their goal isn’t to eliminate police departments or strip law-enforcement agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on community needs such as housing, education and mental health.
The ACLU said Hogsett’s proposal to reform IMPD’s use-of-force policy is a critical component, but that a “few trainings and updates to IMPD’s polices just won’t cut it.”
“Indianapolis is hurting,” Henegar said. “We must stop trying to tweak a rotten system whose roots are riddled with racism. We can only start real change with a bold and shared reimagining of law enforcement policies, practices and cultures.”
Taylor Schaffer, deputy chief of staff for Hogsett, said since Day 1 he has been committed to reimaging the criminal justice system and reinvesting in the community in order to address the root causes of violent crime, noting that one of his first acts as mayor was to create the Office of Public Health and Safety, which seeks to take a holistic approach to the wellbeing, safety and health of Indianapolis residents. She said over the last four years, the office has nearly doubled the amount of funding and resources aimed at community programming and violence reduction efforts.
“Mayor Hogsett has marshaled public safety and health care resources to better address mental health and addiction and prioritize treatment over jailing,” she said, which has included the launch of the Reuben Engagement Center and construction of the new Community Justice Campus, which will include the Assessment and Intervention Center, a facility designed to divert non-violent offenders who are suffering from addiction and mental illness from jail to treatment. “Additionally, Mayor Hogsett has invested in a number of significant reforms that have radically reshaped the relationship between the IMPD and the community.”
Those include instituting mandatory bias training and creating and IMPD Office of Diversity and Inclusion to announcing diversion programs and the construction of a new Community Justice Center. And over the last month, he unveiled plans to deploy body cameras through the department by the end of the year, add civilian members to the use of force review board and make comprehensive changes to the department’s use of force policy.
“This holistic response has, in many ways, already begun to reimagine public safety and the criminal justice system in Marion County,” Schaffer said. “And with violence still impacting too many families in Marion County, it’s clear there is more work to do.”
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Insanity- we need to triple the funding.
😂 fair point!
“Indianapolis is hurting,” Henegar said. “We must stop trying to tweak a rotten system whose roots are riddled with racism. We can only start real change with a bold and shared reimagining of law enforcement policies, practices and cultures.”
Words, words, and more words. Not one word above provides any insight into what Henegar would do to make changes. If things are so rotten it should be easy for him to recommend changes. Another keyboard warrior with nothing but hot air.
Of course the ACLU has to weigh in. Hope that Hogsett has the gonads to tell them what to do with their idea…
Or maybe we could all be adults and have a constructive conversation about making progress, even if we don’t agree with other ideas completely. There must be some compromising that can be done. After all I think we could agree the goal is to better our community.
Job W: “Better our community”
Is that what smashing windows, vandalizing, setting fires is trying to achieve? They sure have a funny way of showing it.
The ACLU still had principles as recently as 4 years ago. Now it’s just another group of well-credentialed activists. Total joke.
Eric M: I don’t believe I ever said that the vandalizing or violent protests were a good idea or a good way to achieve the betterment of our community. I also see the peaceful protests going on that are good and have people working towards that betterment. If you see conversation or a side of a debate that you don’t agree with though and write it off immediately without listening, then that’s part of the problem. That was what I was getting at here, if you don’t agree with the ACLU, or think they are a “joke” then that is fine, but maybe let’s have a real conversation around what will make our community better. And to your point, no, violent protesting is not the way.
Sounds like more of their Socialist Marxist Communist plan for more anarchy and domestic terrorism!
When they get the black community to take ownership of their own self inflicted wounds and we see the propensity of violence severely drop, then we can look at those things later.
ACLU…. FIX THIS!!!
https://www.prageru.com/video/the-top-5-issues-facing-black-americans/
Spot on!
Another thing…
In the last 50 years, trillions of dollars have been spent on the black community’s concerns. The money hasn’t worked yet!!!
And now they are just going to throw more money at it.
No. We saw what happened to downtown.
When did it become ok and acceptable to destroy property and livelihoods, and then put a hand out the next day demanding more money.
They need to quit trying to always be the victim…Fix their own issues first like fathers in the household and actual mothers and fathers raising their children rather than GRANDMA…As they say…Cant fix stupid regardless of $$$$$$$ spent…
Wow, not sure even how to process this statement. Who are you referring to as “They” exactly? This is just a disappointing and disgusting comment to make.
Here is an idea, let’s go ahead and “Defund” the police but let’s move the Indianapolis Police Department under the leadership and management of Jane Henegar & the ACLU. They are always so great at passing judgement on other people’s actions so let’s have them be responsible for the TOTAL safety & security of Indianapolis. Then let’s watch them all come crawling back and begging for help when chaos is the rule and not the exception!!!!! Maybe for once, they would be held accountable.
We once had a downtown nice enough to use. Now… That was *with* police. Defund police and the tax base vaporizes. Citizens will move where physical safety and property are taken seriously.
Notice the a characteristic shared by the Dem’s and their loony brothers & sisters on the left – lack of common sense!
We wouldn’t need half of this amount of funding if politically untouchable segments of our population could ratchet down criminal activity to the level of the majority of the city’s residents. Maybe some accountability from our most crime-prone areas first? It seems in today’s woke world its unacceptable to talk about what sort of standard of behavior we owe our fellow citizens as members of a community, instead it’s all about blame shifting.
Per the old expression: If brains were gunpowder, Jane Henegar wouldn’t have enough to blow her nose.
Where does the current Community spending go? All the grants I read about for low-income areas Across the Nation, where does it go? what gets done with it other than line somebody’s pocket to create another Focus Group? recently in the case of New York City the mayor appointed his own wife to head up some task force, a paid position of course. Where is the fiscal accountability? Defund the police = oh we goofed something up, let’s take some money from this budget then move it over here to cover my backside for wasting money. Isn’t there something called the Government Accountability Office? Where and how is spending being tracked? Where is the oversight for City governments and I don’t mean City council’s! They are virtually always in the back pocket of the mayor – anywhere, not just Indianapolis. Fiscal responsibility aside where is the moral responsibility to properly spend in your community? Obviously leadership has no morals because they continue to draw pay checks through the scam shutdown. They do not feel pain and stress imposed on others by them.
Grassroots, fix neighborhoods everything else will start to fall into place BUT leadership & direction at the top is what has to make that it is full circle.
In the case of Indianapolis it would behoove the city council to work with the Reverend Charles Harrison and work more closely with the 10-point coalition. As I heard a local radio commentator the other day are we governing by fact or emotion right now?
Quit yelling at everybody, throwing tantrums and forcing your agenda, listen then develop change.
Imagine that the ACLU pushing the Marxist agenda to defund the “Local Police” in exchange for a centralized Marxist “Police State”. If you think inequities in the justice system, police brutality and rogue police are bad on the local level, think Tiananmen Square. Where to Marxist Government drove tanks and shot live rounds into protester seeking freedom from tyranny.