Cash-strapped county mulls part-time cops: Merger lets combined department add more reserves
Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson has long clamored for help fighting crime in the suburbs. Thanks to the police merger, he’ll soon get it-from volunteers. The City-County Council ordinance authorizing a merger between Anderson’s Marion County Sheriff’s Department and the Indianapolis Police Department allows for a massive, 239-percent increase in the use of unpaid reserve police. Anderson, a Democrat, will have leeway to use up to 657 reserves in addition to the combined department’s 1,642 full-time cops. That’s 463 more…