Dear Men and Women of IMPD
Are you a good cop? Are one of the 90-plus percent of the men and women of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department who do their jobs everyday with no issues? Are you the officer who used his body as a human shield when the gunfire started this past summer during Expo weekend? Are you the officer who helped find someone’s parent who went missing because they had dementia or are you the one who dove into the lake to save the child with autism? Are you the officer who provides aid and comfort to the violent crime victim? Well it would be nice to hear from you!
No offense, but not only has the public has had enough of hearing and reading about officers behaving badly and the perception that a lot of bad behavior gets covered up by their co-workers. You all know I am one of the most pro-law enforcement people you will ever find so when I say this, please take it to heart and don’t get offended. The public continues to lose faith in you fast and furiously and you need to step up to the plate and stop the hemorrhaging.
I know there is move right now for a vote of “no confidence” in the Mayor, Chief and Public Safety Director, but here’s a newsflash guys and gals. You should be more concerned right now about the falling confidence the public has in you. Trust me, if a vote were taken of you right now, you would not fare much better than IMPD’s administration.
Now I don’t think things have gone so far the rabbit hole that they can’t be turned around. But to coin a phrase, now is the time for all good officers to come to the aid of their city and do their part to restore confidence and regain the community’s trust. You of all people know that you can’t do your job if the public doesn’t have faith in you. You need faith to have trust and you need trust to have cooperation and you need cooperation to put away the bad guys. And it should never be “us versus them”. You need the public as much as the public needs you. The bunker mentality has got to go.
So what can you do to turn things around? Well for starters, why you all haven’t gathered on Monument Circle in uniform and signed a public pledge re-committing yourselves to citizens of Indianapolis is totally beyond me, but you might want to start there. And the the rest of of it is doing the day-to-day stuff. Winning back the public trust one citizen at a time. You don’t need me to tell you this, you know it already. I speak to a number of officers regularly who tell me how tough it is for the ones who do their jobs. Getting upset isn’t going to solve anything, but being proactive will.
I want you to be able to do your jobs and do it well. But that can’t happen if it looks like all you guys do is complain about your bosses and never take step weed out your own bad actors. Perception eventually becomes reality, and it’s time for the men and women of IMPD to step up and change that perception before it really is too late.
