Hogsett’s new gun proposal reignites criticism of a fellow Democrat

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, left, and Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is making fighting crime a key part of his campaign for a third term, but a portion of his recently announced crime-fighting plan has led to renewed criticism of Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, who faced questions about his record during last year’s county election.

Hogsett, a Democrat, announced his plan as Republican Jefferson Shreve, his fall opponent, has focused much of his campaign on the city’s crime rate.

The mayor’s plan includes hiring three attorneys who would be detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecute federal gun crimes. In a May 25 speech, Hogsett said the partnership between the city’s Office of Corporation Counsel and the U.S. Attorney’s Office would “bring a halt to the efforts of trigger-pullers who seek to use our local criminal justice system as a mere revolving door.”

The proposal to allocate $225,000 for the prosecutorial effort went before the City-County Council Administration and Finance Committee last week. It passed unanimously, with Republican committee members saying the action is necessary because Mears isn’t doing enough.

The city’s corporation counsel, Matt Giffin, who represented the Hogsett administration at the June 13 meeting, said the three Marion County-focused special assistant U.S. prosecutors would be able to seek harsher sentences and provide more efficient results and more rigorous pre-trial detention. State law requires that defendants are given a right to bail, while federal law allows defendants to be denied bail based on danger and flight risk factors.

Minority Leader Brian Mowery, a Republican, asked Giffin if the proposal would “put bad guys behind bars,” which he said Mears is not doing.

Giffin said that the plan was not designed out of concern about county prosecutions. Instead, the plan would take advantage of the differences between state and federal law. And he said there’s plenty of prosecution work to go around.

“I would like to emphasize again, this proposal does not in any way detract from what the Marion County prosecutor is doing,” Giffin said. “It’s really independent of that.

“Rather than detracting from the capacity or caseload of the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, the investment we’re making will add new capacity to bring charges in federal court where that capacity did not exist before,” he said. 

Joshua Bain, another Republican councilor, said he believed the proposal is necessary because the county prosecutor is “not doing everything he can do.”

“Quite frankly, I think we have to applaud the [Hogsett] administration for finding ways we can prosecute crimes in this city when we have an elected prosecutor that doesn’t do it,” Bain said.

The criticism is similar to the rhetoric Mears faced when he ran against Republican Cyndi Carrasco last fall. Carrasco often referred to Mears’ office as providing a “revolving door” for offenders.

Mears beat his challenger by nearly 20 percentage points.

Hogsett is a former federal prosecutor himself and told the media when two officers were injured by gunfire in April that he had been discussing potential remedies to Indianapolis’ gun problem with U.S. Attorney Zach Myers. His recent proposal was borne out of those conversations.

Mears learned about the proposal prior to Hogsett’s announcement speech through a phone call from the administration, which Hogsett spokesman Mark Bode said was positive. Mears told IBJ through a spokesperson that he had just a short phone conversation with Hogsett’s chief of staff, Dan Parker, during which he was provided too few details to form or express an opinion in favor or against the new initiatives.

Mears said the effect of adding three special assistant U.S. attorneys on his office’s caseload will be limited.

“We’ve charged 30 people with homicide cases this year, and 23 of those 30 individuals would not be eligible for the type of prosecution that was outlined,” he told IBJ.

Giffin also acknowledged that during the committee meeting, saying that the federal prosecutors would build their own cases rather than relying on law enforcement investigations.

Mears also said the city needs to allocate more resources to IMPD detectives, which would help them better develop cases his office can prosecute.

He told IBJ the mayor’s new initiatives don’t necessarily reflect the issues in the community. Instead, the city needs legislative fixes—like overturning a law that allows people to carry a gun in Indiana without a permit—that would help law enforcement officer and prosecutors to get guns off the street.

Hogsett’s crime-fighting plan did offer one proposal that would be contingent on a change to a state law that prohibits local governments from passing ordinances related to gun control. If the Legislature were to change that law, Hogsett’s proposal would ban the sale of military-style guns, raise the minimum age to purchase guns from 18 to 21, and end permitless carry and concealed carry of handguns in Marion County.

The gun ordinance—if it was ever allowed to go into effect—would impose fines and not criminal charges. That’s because only the Legislature can create new state crimes.

“I applaud the City Council for taking up that issue and being willing to engage in that process,” Mears said. “They’re currently trying to maximize and utilize every single tool that is available to them. But at the end of the day, [state] statute trumps [local] ordinance.”

Mears was also critical of the timing of the announcement.

“That was something that I did not necessarily understand,” he said. “Why are we having this conversation after the [legislative] session ended?”

Mears had his own win on guns last session. His office called for the Legislature to outlaw devices that convert any firearm into a machine gun. The Legislature passed the bill, which was signed into law in April. Mears said the law reflects the Legislature’s willingness to discuss gun crimes that plague Marion County more than the rest of the state.

Forty-two states currently have laws that preempt local governments from passing firearms ordinances, but cities across the U.S. have challenged those regulations. In 2021, the city of Boulder, Colorado, was successful in its challenge.

Hogsett’s gun-control proposal passed the council’s Public Safety Committee along party lines with Democrats voting in favor and Republicans against. It and the prosecutor-funding proposal are up for final votes at the July 10 full meeting of the council.