Help Wanted
Memorial Day is the “official” start of summer and for Marion County, it may also be the official start of the next crime wave. As the Mayor, Sheriff and other elected and appointed officials look for ways to deal with city’s crime problem, they may want to start within the ranks of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and do some more hiring. According to documents, accidentally sent out by e-mail, IMPD faces an officer shortage of crisis proportion.
Depending on how you count the bodies, IMPD currently has anywhere between 128 to 140 street patrol officer vacancies. As of May 20, IMPD has 1,248 allotted patrol officer positions, but only 1,109 are filled. IMPD has a total of 177 vacancies, 80 percent are street officers. Most of the vacancies are in the Department’s northwest district, which has 38 vacancies. The north district has 11 vacancies. Northeast district has 24 vacancies. There is one vacancy in the Downtown district. The southeast district has 19 vacancies. And the southwest district has 35 vacancies.
What makes this information so disturbing is that IMPD may loose up 80 experienced officers due to retirement later this year, but only about 60 new recruits will come through the current class. Add on the fact Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson has said in the past, he’s needed 250 more officers to effectively patrol Marion County. So to add this all up, a city facing its most dramatic increases in crime in recent memory is potentially short more than 400 officers.
Are you surprised that crime seems out of control? You shouldn’t be anymore.
