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In an effort to quell violent weekends in Broad Ripple’s entertainment district, the Hogsett administration will close the area’s largest parking lot, install cameras in problem lots and further restrict parking in the area beginning Friday.
It’s another step toward crowd control following a shooting incident in the village on Sunday that killed three people and injured another as 400 to 500 people gathered in the area.
IMPD Chief Randal Taylor said limiting parking will discourage people who are not patronizing businesses from loitering and creating these kinds of crowds.
“They’re just out for no good, so shutting those parking lots down should get them out of the area,” Taylor said at a press conference Friday.
The neighborhood association had requested the creation of a gun-free zone after Sunday’s tragedy. A gun-free zone will not be implemented for the holiday weekend, but Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced three measures Friday that the police and the Department of Public Works will take to decrease violence in the area.
The city will limit parking in the area beginning with the Broad Ripple Station parking lot, which the mayor said has been the site of informal mass gatherings beginning at 11 p.m. The owner of the strip mall has requested assistance in shutting down the parking during off hours, Hogsett said.
Starting this weekend, the Department of Public Works will place barriers at entrances to the lot from 10 p.m. Fridays to 6 a.m. Saturrdays and from 10 p.m. Saturdays to 6 a.m. Sundays.
The police department is also encouraging businesses to leave on exterior lights. IMPD will put up a light tower at Broad Ripple Station and at least five other badly-lit locations. The city is encouraging business owners to request these light towers.
The police department will also place cameras in “problem parking lots.” One permanent public safety camera has already been placed, IMPD Assistant Chief Chris Bailey said. Another trailer camera is being placed in an area where IMPD sees issues, he said.
The Department of Public Works also will limit parking at a strip of 16 parking meters on Guilford Avenue, from Broad Ripple Avenue to Westfield Boulevard.
Taylor said people are encouraged to come to Broad Ripple for dinner, drinks and dancing, but the shootings have to stop.
“If (your) intent is to cause trouble, to look for a fight, to settle some kind of score, Broad Ripple is not the place,” Taylor said. “Honestly, Indianapolis is not the place. I think people are truly getting weary of the gun violence that occurs.”
Jordan Dillon, executive director of the Broad Ripple Village Association, appeared at the Friday press conference in support of the new measures. The neighborhood group worked with IMPD, DPW, the Mayor’s Office and City-County Councilor John Barth to formulate the plan this week, she said.
“We’re not solely focused just on one thing that can be done,” Dillon said. “Instead we’re exploring any and all options, we’re adapting, we’re collaborating and we’re dedicated.”
The Friday announcement was the latest in a series of steps announced as the neighborhood grapples with late-night summer violence.
The neighborhood group first asked for assistance from the city in late May after a weekend in which three shootings occurred. On Sunday, shootings at about 2:30 a.m. in the 800 block of Broad Ripple Avenue left a 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman dead at the scene. A wounded 22-year man and 21-year-old woman were taken to the hospital, where the man died later Sunday.
The Broad Ripple Village Association announced Wednesday that all late-night bars and restaurants will close at 1 a.m. Previously, bars in Broad Ripple frequently closed at 3 a.m. as required by state law.
“What happened [Wednesday] when our neighbors got together and made massive sacrifices to put public safety first is what our village is all about,” Dillon said Friday.
After Sunday’s incident, the Broad Ripple Village Association sent a letter to the Mayor’s Office requesting assistance in creating a gun-free zone in the entertainment district. While state law preempts cities from regulating guns, cities are allowed to assist private event holders in creating gun-free zones when those events are on public property.
The option is still on the table and could be “up and running” in the “not too distant future,” Taylor said.
Hogsett is running for a third term in November against Republican candidate Jefferson Shreve. Shreve’s campaign released a statement in response to Friday’s announcement.
“We’re glad Mayor Hogsett is finally realizing crime is a problem in Broad Ripple,” Shreve campaign manager Matt Organ said in written remarks. “It’s amazing how many public safety announcements the mayor is making the closer the election gets.”
The role of permitless carry
Hogsett, a Democrat, blamed some of the recurring issues on the permitless carry law passed by the Republican-dominated state Legislature. It took effect exactly one year ago Saturday, Hogsett noted.
The law repealed the state’s gun permit requirements, allowing anyone age 18 or older to carry a handgun in public except for reasons such as having a felony conviction, facing a restraining order from a court or having a dangerous mental illness. Several police agencies, including the Indiana State Police and IMPD, spoke out against the legislation.
“If that law was a test to see if a more openly-armed society would be a more polite society, I consider that failed,” Hogsett said.
“Even with murders in decline locally for the year 2023, tragedies like last Sunday as well as a general spike in accidental and non-criminal killings all show that weakening gun ownership requirements has not contributed to a safer city or a safer state,” he added.
Under the law, officers can’t stop individuals to ask if they are legally allowed to carry a gun, Bailey said. Instead, officers need a criminal reason to inquire about a person’s criminal past, he said.
“But someone’s simply walking around with a gun on their hip, or as we’ve seen in Broad Ripple, two rifles, right, it’s not illegal,” Bailey said. He later noted that the new law only applies to handguns.
The crowd control measures will be in effect until IMPD officers begin to see changes in behavior, Bailey said.
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Indianapolis has always been the place to settle scores.
A solid solution.
Was
Why in Central Indiana is this a problem only in Indianapolis?
The problem is bleeding out all across America. When a car show in rural Alabama has a shooting it makes national news because people like you thought this kind of stuff only happens in those big bad cities.
Dan M. you make no sense whatsoever. Indy has a violent crime and gun crime epidemic. Indy has a higher murder rate per capita than Chicago! What does this say about our lack of leadership, lack of political will and lack of residents demanding change? The “gun free zone” idea is laughable.
John – the timing of all this happening just coincidentally happened when we relaxed gun safety to its lowest point ever?
It’s a literal inverse graph of gun safety vs violent crime
State permit-less gun laws DO NOT help! “The law repealed the state’s gun permit requirements, allowing anyone age 18 or older to carry a handgun in public except for reasons such as having a felony conviction, facing a restraining order from a court or having a dangerous mental illness. Several police agencies, including the Indiana State Police and IMPD, spoke out against the legislation.”
“If that law was a test to see if a more openly-armed society would be a more polite society, I consider that failed,” Hogsett said.
The State letting guns flow freely through the streets and then passing legislation that prevents Indianapolis (and only Indianapolis) from addressing the issue by taking away local authority, making basic enforcement illegal, or removing the city’s ability to distribute resources or enact protections that would curtail violence. It’s an intentional strategy to destabilize larger cities and then blame it on local leadership to score points with the voter base.
“Weakening gun ownership requirements” What is the ‘current’ Mayor referring to? For a guy that was a public prosecutor, Hogsett and his charges constantly come across as defensive, surprised, naive and overwhelmed. Here’s an idea; Try enforcing decades old ‘loitering laws’. Not only in Broad Ripple but downtown or anywhere unsavory hoards gather. It’s as though his police and legal departments are ‘afraid’ to be proactive,…face to face.
Loitering might have been a problem, but what’s new to the mix is the amount of guns in the crowd. Yeah, we can lock down schools and try to create gun free zones, or even bust up loitering crowds, but your ignoring the root problem, America has too many guns too easily available to anyone all of the time.
Do you ever wonder why the statehouse has metal detectors at all of the doors? The cowards that are making these laws know exactly what they are doing to the public at large, because it wins them votes.
Exactly right, Dan. But this is all pretty typical. Republicans pass laws that create or worsen problems, then try to blame Democrats for the problems. They can ban guns at the Statehouse and put in metal detectors, but they strip the Democratic mayor of Indianapolis of any ability to prevent the proliferation of guns in public places. You can’t carry a gun in the Republican-controlled Statehouse, but in the streets of Indianapolis, any non-felon can carry a gun, with no permit, with no restriction, and the police have no control over those people or those guns until someone starts shooting. They can’t even enforce the last remaining restriction that covers felons, until they find some other reason to arrest someone. Republicans have created a Wild West across our state, taken away most of the sheriff’s authority, and now want to blame the sheriff for the absolutely unsurprising problem of violence. Why do we keep electing these totally unserious, unqualified and unfit-for-office legislators?
50 badges on foot last night at 1am. All bars closed at 1a. Making moves. Way to go, Jordan. On the mend.
Good lord. Sick.
Indianapolis MuniCode Sec. 407-103. – Loitering
(a)Loitering. No person shall loiter or prowl in a place, at a time or in a manner not usual for law abiding citizens, under circumstances that warrant a justifiable and reasonable alarm or immediate concern for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity, in any public way, street, highway, place or alley and refuse to obey the lawful command of a police officer to move on or provide to such police officer a lawful reason for remaining on such public way, street, highway, place or alley if the alleged loitering by such person would create or cause to be created any of the following:(1)Danger of a breach of the peace;(2)The unreasonable danger of a disturbance to the comfort and repose of any person acting lawfully on or in a public way, street, highway, place or alley reserved for pedestrians;(3)The obstruction or attempted obstruction of the free normal flow of vehicular traffic or the normal passage of pedestrian traffic upon any public way, street, highway, place or alley;(4)The obstruction, molestation or interference or attempt to obstruct, molest or interfere with any person lawfully on or in a public way, street, highway, place or alley, in a manner that would cause a reasonable person or pedestrian of a public way, street, highway, place or alley to fear for his or her safety.
This would require IMPD to do their job for once and leave their cruisers….
Hey, reTHUGlicons: IT’S THE GUNS…
So removing parking on the avenue and closing the largest parking lot now forces actual patrons to park and walk through the dark and/or poorly lit neighborhood streets is the solution??? Past police reports and statistics will show that assaults, robbery, and rapes of patrons walking home or to their cars at night have been happening for years and years on the poorly lit neighborhood streets surrounding broad ripple. SO now we get to watch those stats start rising again.
Seems like the Joe and BRVA are trying to use a bandaid to reattach a severed limb. Permanent lighting, easily visible cameras everywhere, and more cops all around the village actually DOING their job walking the beat will solve the problem. Why is it so hard to understand that? Shutting down parking lots isn’t the fix. People think “there is nowhere to park in Broad Ripple. Let’s just go somewhere else”