Afternoons with Amos listeners were asked Wednesday what ideas and suggestions they had for improving the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Here’s the ideas and suggestions. Feel free to use Disqus and send us your own. We’ll share them on air.
- Put PR/communications professionals, not uniformed officers, handling media relations and community relations with media for IMPD.
- IMPD should get out more into the Black community to recruit potential officers. Start recruiting more young Black men and women. Get into the high schools and elementary schools and let kids see cops in a different light/way.
- Police need to act like they have some sense. Be serious and professional in dealing with the community.
- Get the Feds (FBI) in here. There needs to be Justice Department oversight of IMPD like the Feds have done in Newark, New Orleans, Los Angeles.
- Sheriff should be in control of the police. The police department is too political. Take politics out of it.
- There needs to be a consistency of response and a sensitivity of response by police officers in the community.
- The IMPD clings to a culture of corruption. That must stop. There needs to be a different way of promoting officers at command ranks.
- If a top commander messes up, they should be fired. They shouldn’t be allowed to remain with the department at their regular rank.
- Bring Robert Turner (former Public Safety Director) back either as Chief or Public Safety Director.
- Need the Feds to intervene. Demand an FBI review of all police action shootings by Indianapolis Police.
- Nepotism is a very big problem. Get rid of nepotism. Hiring of family members and relatives.
- Community needs to act like an auxiliary police force. Community needs to work together with police.
- FOP Fraternal Order of Police should be dismantled and redone. FOP should be integrated with Black police officers associations.
- Bring a team from the FBI to travel to police departments across the state to make sure the policies and procedures are being followed correctly.
- The public must be more involved in what police are doing. There must be more transparency.
- IMPD needs to utilize Six Sigma training and procedures. Identify the problem then create ways to fix/solve the problem.
- Lie detector tests should be administered annual to all police officers, regardless of rank. The community should have input into the questions.
- Needs to be continuing education/training like FDIC (Fire Department Conference). Should be neighborhood introduction meetings with officers in each area
- They all (police officers) need to be retrained. Improve recruiting!!! I look at police officers now, and think to myself, how did he/she make it on the force!!???
- If the police have no faith in the Public Safety Director then one or the other has to go. Either someone is fired or its time for a Come to Jesus meeting.
- Need more Blacks in upper management
- Draft Chief Bill Benjamin back as the Chief of IMPD and relieve Dr. Straub of his duties. Benjamin knows where the problems are and can clean house if Ballard will let him.
- Support reforms currently advanced
- Either eliminate FOP as sole bargaining unit or formally include FILE & BPA as partners in the bargaining unit
- Expand Civilian Review/Merit Board Review to include annual review of Professional Standards Division.
- Hire civilian communication professional to improve communication and public relations efforts
- Embrace zone policing as part of community policing formula
- Advance a search process for Chief of Police that used the community engagement/input process the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) used prior to the hiring of Chief Michael Zunk (1997).
