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troy riggsIn an extended live Afternoons with Amos interview, Public Safety Director Troy Riggs talked passionately about plans for 2015 to make Indianapolis neighborhoods safer and made news in the Indianapolis Mayor’s Race. Talking with Amos, Riggs talked about how the various departments in Public Safety, including the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Indianapolis Fire Department, Animal Care and Control and the Mayor’s Office of Re-Entry among others are going to work to reduce crime in six neighborhoods targeted last summer by Riggs and his department as areas with high crime issues.  Riggs’ dedication to the task of making the city/county safer is so strong that he adamantly declared that he “would not be a candidate for (Indianapolis) Mayor”.  Riggs has been rumored to be a potential Republican candidate for Mayor.  Several sources had said that Riggs had been under heavy pressure by top Republican Party leaders to consider running.

amos and troy riggs

Many times for newsmakers, their first time speaking to the Black community was on AWA. Amos talks with Public Safety Director Troy Riggs right after he met Indianapolis media for the first time

But in his Afternoons with Amos interview, Riggs was unequivocal about continuing to do his job as Public Safety Director and wasn’t interested in running for Mayor.  The six neighborhoods the Department of Public Safety is working with to curb crime surround the intersections of: West 16th Street and North Tibbs Avenue, West 29th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, West 34th Street and North Illinois Street, East 38th Street and North Sherman Drive, East New York Street and North Sherman Drive, and East 42nd Street and North Post Road. Among Riggs objectives for the agencies within the Public Safety family are the following:

• Police Department: Reduce violent crime in focus areas by five percent.

• Fire Department: Reduce number of structure fires in focus areas by 5 percent and reduce civilian fire fatalities by 10 percent.

• Emergency Medical Services: Reduction in the number of overdose deaths in focus areas.

• Department Homeland Security: Establish a data analysis unit in conjunction with MESH.

• Animal Care and Control: Hold a micro-chipping event in each of the focus areas with the goal of providing free dog micro-chipping.

• Emergency Communications: Determine three-year monthly history for calls to 911 (emergency), 3811 (non-emergency), and 211 (service providers). Show monthly decrease in 911 calls shifting to 3811 and 211.

• Mayor’s Office of Re-Entry: Identify 100 individuals who are most at-risk to re-offend in the six focus areas and engage them in wrap-around services.

• Citizens Police Complaint Office: Identify number of complaints received in focus areas and create contact response card with goal of no re-occurrence.

Click the Link to Read Details of the Department of Public Safety’s Plans to Reduce Crime and Provide Needed Services in Six Indy Neighborhoods.  INDY DEPT PUBLIC SAFETY 2015 FOCUS AREA GOALS AND OBJECTIVES   Click the Media Player to hear Director Troy Riggs Interview. Runs 15 Minutes. His Comments on Mayor’s Race at 13:25. ©2015 WTLC/Radio One.