Wednesday, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department promoted three officers to the permanent rank of Captain and six to the permanent rank of Lieutenant. None were African-American.
These most recent promotions capped one of the most abysmal years for IMPD minority promotions in years; as IMPD this year promoted twenty-six officers to the top permanent leadership ranks. And only one African-American!
This year, sixteen officers were promoted to sergeant; six were made Lieutenants and four were promoted to Captain, the IMPD’s highest permanent merit rank. Just one, an African-American was promoted, to Lieutenant in October.
In a city/county estimated to be 27% African-American just 13.3% of the department’s total of 1,644 sworn police officers are African-American (218 out of 1644).
And of those holding the rank of Sergeant, the largest group of supervisors, just 11.6% (27 out of 232) are African-American.
And in the top command ranks, Lieutenant and above, just twelve African-Americans hold those leadership positions out of a total of 129 – a paltry 9.3%.
The promotion of just one African-American officer to a permanent leadership rank this calendar year could be the worst example of leadership diversity in IMPD in many years. And could spark a fresh series of lawsuits against the department and possible Justice Department sanctions.
