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Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett says he rejects the notion that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department needs assistance from Indiana State Police to crack down on crime in the downtown area.
“I don’t object to suggestions that we continue to cooperate, but the inference that downtown is unsafe is simply not true,” he said. “Having state police take over responsibility for downtown is, in my estimation, not the answer.”
The mayor’s comments Wednesday came in response to a proposal put forth by Fort Wayne businessman and candidate for governor Eric Doden, who is seeking the Republican nomination along with Sen. Mike Braun and Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch. Gov. Eric Holcomb will finish his second term in 2024 and is not eligible to run again due to term limits.
One aspect of Doden’s “Capital Zone Plan” calls for putting more state troopers downtown and in high-crime areas of Indianapolis.
Hogsett said he was open to state police having a greater presence downtown to protect state properties but was adamant that IMPD officers are “doing an outstanding job of keeping downtown safe.”
He also said he plans to share updates on the city’s three-year anti-violence reduction program, which launched in January 2022 with $150 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act money. Last fall, the city authorized $3.5 million specifically for downtown, with a goal of implementing safety and cleanliness programs over 18 months.
“Mr. Doden needs to look at the statistics,” Hogsett said. “Downtown is literally the safest neighborhood in all of our city.”
Across the city, most crime has decreased over the past decade, but homicides and manslaughters have increased citywide, and other violent crimes have increased downtown. Still, downtown had the lowest crime rate of any city neighborhood in 2021, according to data from the city, IMPD and the U.S. Census Bureau.
City officials have recognized a need to address the homeless population downtown, however.
The Legislature also made a last-minute addition to the 2023-2025 state budget that provides a mechanism for the city to tax downtown property owners to pay for revitalization efforts, including cleanliness initiatives, homelessness outreach and additional funding for safety ambassadors. The special taxing district would also pay for the operational costs of an eventual low-barrier homeless shelter.
The mayor did not address the other two components of Doden’s plan, including the creation of a state-operated zone to take responsibility for infrastructure in Indianapolis’ Mile Square and the formation of a prosecutor review board to “create a system of accountability for rogue prosecutors.”
“We need to have people that will enforce the laws that are on the books,” Doden told IBJ last week. “It’ll be an independent board. There will be a lot of elected officials, and I think it’ll be a positive thing for everybody.”
In recent years, state lawmakers have tried to pass legislation to establish a prosecutor commission and review board with the goal of dealing with “noncompliant” prosecutors who refuse to pursue certain cases. A 2023 bill from Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, would have given the Indiana Attorney General’s Office jurisdiction in cases where county prosecutors pledge not to pursue certain crimes, but the legislation failed to gain widespread support among the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.
While he hasn’t been outright named in any legislation, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears is widely known to have rankled GOP lawmakers by deciding not to prosecute cases involving simple marijuana possession, panhandling and other nonviolent crimes.
Mears was also one of more than 90 district attorneys and prosecutors to sign a letter promising not to enforce abortion bans. Indiana’s near-total abortion ban passed by state lawmakers in August remains on hold while the law is challenged in court.
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Doden’s plan was useful to show he’d be an awful governor.
The concept that only the Mile Square is in need of infrastructure help? This is supposed to be taken seriously?
Yet another Republican out of his depth.
Evidently Hogsett and his staff are out of their depth also.
The violent cr8me rate in Indianapolis is terrible.
You can’t blame that on the R’s. That’s a Dem created problem.
I suspect you’re wrong there. Give every Tom, Dick, and Harry a gun (a Republican Solution) and then everyone is surprised that people are shooting each other.
Dan M.
Record years of shootings and murders were recorded consecutively for
several years. Before the change in our gun laws.
Again, I’m not advocating for or against. Just po8nting out some simple
facts that get in the way of the Dem narrative.
Hogsett’s Prosecutor Ryan Mears thought social justice over criminal justice
( like most Dems ) was a good idea. Why lock up these poor little misunderstood
violent criminals.
Obviously.
The most “unsafe” think any person has more than a trivial chance of running into Downtown is somebody asking for money or help, which may feel unsafe to some but isn’t actually unsafe.
Ironically, the properties where one is most likely to be solicited for help or money are state-owned properties. So if The State has a problem with panhandlers or vagrants, maybe The State should manage its own properties better. Not try to take over the rest of Downtown so that the entire Downtown can be poorly managed.
At the end of the day, Doden is an out-of-touch guy who spends half his time in Fort Wayne and half is time in Michigan. He hasn’t got a clue about Indianapolis or its problems – he’s just trying to make stuff up to get votes from people who have likely never been to Indy. He’ll probably keep spending a ton of time in Grand Rapids, even as he campaigns on nonsense to try to win the gubernatorial primary.
South Illinois
South Meridian
Maryland
Washington
Georgia
All streets with big vangracy and panhandling problems.
Right where many of the out of towners must go.
Think they’ll want to come back to downtown Indianapolis????
Easy answer is NO.
Keith–while I agree that the criminality and vagrancy in DT Indianapolis is unacceptable, you consistently tout other peer cities as though they don’t have similar problems. Many, in fact, have it worse than Indy.
I’m amazed the people that associate homeless people to crime. Yeah, some of them have mental health issues, but the safety issues these guys are pointing at are people being shot.
As long as Republican Politicians do stupid things, like allowing permit-less carry, crime IS going to go up. Other states that have already done this, have seen around a 10% increase in gun violence.
Dan M.
I’m NOT advocating for or against on the gun permit-less carry legislation.
I’m simply pointing out to the left that several years of record breaking
amount of shootings and murders occurred before the Republicans passed the permit-less gun carry legislation.
Evidently the Dem supporters have been absent the last six or seven years
before the gun carrying legislation was passed,
Selective Dem memory.
Well Joe good thing you are not an estimator, because you are lost on this one!
Explain.
I look at it differently from the previous comments. Promoting safety by allocating State resources to the task is a positive. I don’t see it as undermining IPD or the Mayor. I see the approach from an economic development stance….to continue to enhance Indianapolis’ image for attracting trade shows, conferences, sporting events and companies to consider downtown Indy. I’ve been following Doden and he is coming to the table with ideas for Indiana statewide. This idea is more about protecting (literally and perceptively) the crown jewel of the State.
So, gloss things up for the visitors while the rest of us can deal with potholes the size of Mike Young. Neat.
Downtown doesn’t have a crime problem. It has a mental health and homelessness problem.
So pair things like a ban on panhandling and living on the streets with the implementation of the low barrier shelter and wraparound services. And, oh yeah, more spending on mental health funding because Reagan closing the mental hospitals was a big mistake.
Also, if you’re actually serious about improving downtown, you’d figure out a way to help a few new restaurants start up so those visitors have cool places to eat… without jeopardizing what’s going on in Mass Ave and Fountain Square.
Heck, if you really wanted to help the convention business, you’d come up with a free rapid bus line to get people between the airport and downtown.
Finally, if the convention business was what you wanted to protect, why would the focus of every session be implementing legislation that just gives visitors a reason to not come to Indiana?
Todd I.
Agreed, I took as you did.
He understands that downtown is an important area for the state.
For the reasons you mentioned.
Joe B.
No restaurants or shops are going to open up downtown as long
as Hogsett and his social justice warriors keep tolerating the panhandling
and criminal activity in the convention area.
So where are the visitors going to go for food. I guess the food trucks will
suffice for a couple of days. More maybe gas station convenient stores lol……
I’m guessing all the empty store fronts and unkept streets, sidewalks, dingy
buildings near the convention center area shouldn’t be a problem for
downtown convention visitors either.
Remember Starbucks on the Circle. They closed because of all the vagrancy,
pandhandking, and crime. That was a very profitable store.
Now they’re closed and we have the Circle looking worse now than ever.
The visitors coming in are probably just can’t wait to get the hell out
of downtown Indianapolis. Especially in the convention area.
Second, you blame Regan all the time for a problem that’s been perpetrated by
the liberal Dem activists for decades.
Keith, I proposed several potential solutions, ideas, that I dare say would likely make folks across the political spectrum both happy and angry.
You just spout buzzwords when asked to come up with your own solutions.
This is pandering to a hard-right base. The Governor has almost nothing to do with downtown Indianapolis governance. Except to preside over a complex that has about a million SF of office space in non-taxed public buildings.
This has been tried in Jackson Mississippi. So far it’s a disaster. The Jackson police department has lost about of 1/3 of police officers as the state goes on a hiring binge offering significantly higher pay. In in step 1 the local police force was gutted.
Then the state police don’t actually have policies and procedures for dealing with policing in urban areas, and on top of that, the local citizens can’t even find out what they are. So, now you have a police force in place that is most likely going to be doing racial profiling.
They have had out of control high speed chases that spread to other parts of the city.
People arrested by the state police are now in a state court.
Disaster, disaster, disaster !
Dan M.
Urban police departments all over the country have been having a very
difficult time recruiting & retaining police officers since the
BLM/Antifa protests and riots of 2020. Wherever BLM/Antifa were the most
active and violent, the more difficult recruiting and retaining of police officers.
I see it as a positive initiative. All 92 counties are important in their own way to Indiana’s success, but Marion and specially the core mile play an even greater role. If the State can help the the City of Indianapolis do better through funding and resources, I see that as win-win.
Maybe a start would be to give Indianapolis back it’s fair share of road funding.
The difference here is not funding but who controls how it is used. In line with the state legislature telling the 950,000 residents of Marion County what they can and cannot do, it is not a stretch to see proposals like this.
“You may not implement mass transit that does not involve a bus.”
“You may not install street signs we do not like.”
“We will give you less money for paved roads than we give to rural areas.”
“Oh, heck, we will just move our police in and take over.”
If the state government is truly interested in making Indianapolis a safer city, perhaps they might try allowing the city to take common sense action like the proposal to ban right turns on red in the mile square. Let’s not forget that a record 40 pedestrians were killed in our city last year. They also might try to stop passing legislation that would halt the blue line project along Washington Street, where our children are being struck and killed by out of control drivers. Finally, the state might try investing in quality of life improvements, supporting marginalized groups, and healthcare. Our state ranked 48th in quality of life in 2022 and it should be no surprise that desperate people with little to no support will resort to desperate measures. Adding more police is proven to have negligible or even negative impacts on crime. Unfortunately, our state legislature isn’t interested in actually improving our lives, because they know that they have a base who don’t care about any of the above; they only care about scoring political points against their rivals and staying in power no matter the cost.
And the Legislature’s recent actions with respect to guns – so called constitutional carry – hasn’t helped the crime problem in Indy.
Great point, other Mike! Our own police officers have referred to that law as being incredibly detrimental to their ability to “fight crime.”
Shootings and murders were already at record highs before the new gun law
legislation.
Keith B, is the insinuation that because shootings were at a record high BEFORE we made them even easier to access, the problem isn’t just going to be exacerbated even further? That’s a bad faith argument contradicted by our own police officers. You can refer to my original post for other ideas to reduce crime. Its not JUST about the guns, its about supporting communities so that they don’t feel the need to turn to a gun.
Michael N.
I hear what you’re saying. But it doesn’t change the fact that shootings
and murders were already at an all time. And not by a little either.
Talk to the IMPD cops and the FOP President sometime. They will tell you
that the problem is that the city prosecutor Ryan Mears is not prosecuting criminals.
The home ankle monitor program is not working. Indianapolis has more people on
home detention ankle monitors than any other city in the nation.
The recidivism rate for people on the these ankel monitors is running well
over 70%. Probably around 75%. That is a very high recidivism rate. Much much higher than people
that have to post bail.
Agree, that we must invest in our communities. But we also have to lock
criminals at the same time.
Not prosecuting violent offenders fir social justice and equity reasons has been disastrous for the city.
Keith, according to the state of Indiana, the rate in Marion County is 45%. Which is high, but not the highest in the state.
Rick Snyder should run for mayor if he’s so smart.
https://www.in.gov/idoc/files/data-and-statistics/2021_Adult_Recidivism_CountyofCommit-1.PDF
Joe B.
Are you saying that the over all recidivism rate is 45% for both ankel monitors
and bail in Marion County??
If that’s the case then people posting bail probably have a recidivism rate
much lower than the 45 % rate since the ankel monitors rate hovers around 75%.
Keith – I’m giving you actual statewide statistics when it comes to recidivism rates. If you’ve got data to back up your numbers, I’m all ears.
Counting on Rick Snyder, the police union president, to give you accurate numbers and perspective is a little like asking noted sports agent Leigh Steinberg for numbers and perspective on what players should be paid.
Joe B.
I trust Rick Snyder FOP President npmore than the Hogsett Administration
on this particular matter.
Go ahead and show us all where Rick Snyder gave the 75% number.
Joe B.
Rick Snyder gave that stat on WIBC about two weeks ago,
75% may not have been the exact number. But well over 70%.
People on ankel bracket monitors have two to three times the rate of recidivism of people that must post bail.
The higher the bail the lower the of recidivism rate.
If Mayor Hogsette and Ryan Mears have different stats, then they should go on WIBC and state their case WIBC probably has the furthest reach of any station
in the entire state.
**Just heard this morning, Friday, May 26 th, on Fox 59 News at 5:30 a.m. that people from all over the
state of Indiana are paying attention to Indianapolis and the crime problem.
People around the state ARE AFRAID of it. Meaning they are afraid of Indianapolis. Verbatim!!!!!!
Verbatim from the State Police Superintendent Douglas Carter.****
Fox News this morning again. Friday, May 26 th, at 5:30 a.m.
“ Indianapolis is on pace for another historically high year of homicides.”
Verbatim.
Joe, are you getting the picture yet? Connecting the dots?? Or are you still in
denial??
Indianapolis does have a major image problem concerning violent crime.
You should pass this on to Mayor Hogsette and Ryan Mears.
State Police Superintendent Douglas Carter said he hears from people all over the state.
Joe B.
Again, on Fox News 59 at around 5:30 a.m. Target and major retailers want public
policy changes by our law makers because they are being hammered with retail theft.
Thank our Dem Prigressive Prosecutors that are more concerned with
social justice than criminal justice.
I believe that cities and towns have the right and duty to police themselves and their residents. The state legislature wants one police force and prosecutorial authority that they control. A city or town has the right to make their own traffic laws (right turn on red, is a case in point) that best protect and serve their residents. If asked, the legislature has the duty to consider requests for help and decide each request on its merits.
Why wouldn’t the city want to accept additional resources from the state? The city is currently struggling to recruit new police officers. Using state resources downtown would allow the IMPD to assign relatively more officers to problem areas outside of the downtown area.
Holcomb offered Hogsett state resources, to protect the downtown, after the first night of the 2020 riots. Hogsett refused and we then watched rioters burn and vandalize our city a second night. That’s just stubborn leadership.
Lastly, downtown visitor and office populations had not yet rebounded from Covid in 2021. There were a lot less people downtown so I wouldn’t consider the crime statistics quoted in the article to be statistically valid as it relates to 2023.
Murder rate ahead of last year. Mayor must consider that a win.
It was maybe twice as high in 1970’s but nobody remembers that.
3/15 the combined murder and homicide count was 90. So the big plan isn’t working, and few are ever prosecuted. A new could fire the prosecutor.
The prosecutor was just r-elected with a near-record margin. After a divisive, aggressive campaign against him.
The problem is, and was–guns.
As for state troopers patrolling downtown–they’re having a difficult time recruiting and retaining troopers. No thanks.
Is downtown truly safe or not? Perception is reality for many business owners. Mayor Hogsett is clueless to business owner needs in Indianapolis, especially the mile square. The perception is that downtown is unsafe. Perception is reality to business owners that need spending from both tourism and local residents to stay in business. If those consumers don’t spend time and money after work hours, then businesses will continue to struggle. I think it’s high time that our current or prospective mayor get tough on crime and use all resources at their disposal. Let’s make some examples of those who are destroying the fabric of our communities.
Safety is not the issue at this point – it’s just a talking point for downtown businesses
Downtown commuters are only at an estimated 17% of precovid daily traffic.
People are just used to existing in the square mile around their home now – so we need to triple downtown population if we are going to fix this
Just remember, the bobbleheads will tell you safety is “a talking point” for downtown businesses.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, where a single square mile of the city is denser and richer than all of Indianapolis, they’ve faced the following closures in and around Market Street in the last 2 months: Whole Foods, Anthopologie, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, Williams Sonoma, H&M, Marshalls, Office Depot. A range of products catering to a wide variety of income levels.
SF is not usually remotely analogous to Indy, for reasons listed above. Yet the bobbleheads here still see SF as aspirational. Pretty goofy given that the most of the businesses closing are doing this despite ESG-induced support for Dem policies.
If the numbers don’t come out favorably, what other choices do they have? And how long before Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s follow Nordstrom’s lead?
Indy is still running at a net loss of businesses since 2020, much like SF. People like to see Indy as an oasis of enlightenment in a sea of red-state ignorance, yet they also rag on it for not embracing progress. A city of Indy’s size has three full-service supermarkets in its mile square downtown. This is remarkable. But if downtown population starts to flatline or even shrink, how much longer can Whole Foods support a presence? This doesn’t even count the “shrinkage” taking place at retailers by other means.
Hogsett: “Downtown is safe!” and then another business closes. Just a talking point….
Lauren – you are obsessed with comparing apples to oranges.
I would also venture to guess you only see San Francisco on the screen and have not actually been there…ever?
If safety is such an issue then tell the state legislature to unstick their head from their rear cavity and pass legislation that allows us to hold people on bail for crimes and tell IMPD to actually do their job instead of crying in their cars
J.J.
The problem isn’t IMPD. The problem is the Hogsett Administration.
Hogsett’s prosecutor Ryan Mears is more concerned with social justice than
with criminal justice. He flat out said so when he took office. He said there
would be more racial equity in his approach.
Translation: Not going to prosecute or put as many people in jail.
He also said he would NOT prosecute or put shoplifters in jail.
Ask IMPD or FOP President Rick Snyder. As soon as the cops arrest a person,
even for violence, they are right back out on the streets.
We have more people on home ankel brace monitors than any other city in the country.
The recidivism rate is around 75% in Marion County for those on ankel bracelet
home detention. Those that have to post bail it’s probably around 30%.
Investing back into the community is worthy. But you have to prosecute
criminals also.
You may think that downtown is safe. Great! That’s your prerogative.
But the majority of people in Marion County do not.
As a Matthew A. Said. Perception is reality for the people of Indianapolis.
People don’t feel safe in the downtown core.
A logistics company recently pulled out of downtown for that very reason.
I’d love to see Lauren respond to a post without diverting to talk about some other city thousands of miles away on the left coast.
Ryan Mears was easily beatable in the last election. Cyndi Carrasco ran a campaign not based on what she’d do differently, she ran a campaign based on “I’m not Ryan Mears”. She got trounced.
Meanwhile, Jefferson Shreve is actually running to be the mayor of Indianapolis. He promised some “meat on the bone” when he won the primary three weeks ago. Crickets, still. When Shreve gets trounced like Carrasco did, I won’t be surprised.
People don’t feel safe downtown because there’s people living on the streets, panhandling. Build a place for the homeless to go and get them off the streets. Get them help. After that is done, pass a law to where they can’t panhandle and can’t live on public property. This isn’t rocket science and can be handled with compassion … even if it means we have to slow down our quest to have only poor people pay taxes by a few years.
Anyone who doesn’t think there is a large problem developing downtown is out of touch. Last weekend multiple large groups of youths were roaming downtown causing problems, fights, damaging property and committing crimes to include theft and robberies. Let’s all reconvene after this coming weekend.
Donald F.
Correct, there are problems downtown.
Hammer & Nigel on WIBC reported a large scale fight downtown on the
Circle. Probably around 100 kids involved. They could see the whole thing
from their broadcast studio.
Several police cars came pouring in.
Yet the local media didn’t cover it.