INDIANAPOLIS — Mayor Joe Hogsett, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) Chief Bryan Roach, and Director of Community Violence Reduction Shonna Majors recently hosted a Stewardship Report for the community to outline new efforts to prevent violence during the summer months. The event included special guest Elijah Boyd, an elementary school student from Lakeside Elementary School who shared a poem he wrote encouraging community members to choose love over hate.
IMPD and OPHS’ violence reduction team will be working closely with partners in youth engagement throughout the summer, connecting as many young people as possible with jobs and job training through Project Indy, fun and educational programming at Indy Parks, and positive programs with community partners like the Boys and Girls Club.
The success of the partnership between IMPD and OPHS’ Violence Reduction Team to intervene in the lives of vulnerable residents will be replicated to focus on our young people. Two new specifically-qualified Peacemakers will be dedicated to intervening with juveniles identified as most vulnerable of committing a violent crime, or becoming a victim of one, by IMPD and law enforcement partners in the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP). They will work to connect these juveniles to services and mentorship to stop the cycle of violence.
OPHS’ violence reduction team is partnering with grassroots violence prevention advocates to host safe Saturdays for youth throughout the summer. The effort will include funding productive activities for youth such as outings and BBQs, and targeted neighborhood walks between the hours of 9 p.m. – midnight in areas like downtown where there has been an increase in late night youth activity. OPHS is encouraging community centers to stay open later at night on Saturdays through the summer months, and the Boys and Girls Club near Post Rd. has agreed to stay open late on Fridays.
In partnership with criminal justice researchers at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, IMPD is developing a new data model to guide focus areas for patrol officers in their beats. Many of the issues police are charged with addressing, from crime to traffic crashes to substance abuse and mental illness, have been found to be inter-related.
While focusing on keeping patrol officers serving in beats as IMPD expands community-based beat policing in 2019,
IMPD has partnered with the Indy Public Safety Foundation (IPSF) to increase investment in the Indy PAL program, which recently expanded from the “Police Athletic League” to the “Police Athletic & Activities League,” with additional offerings for local youth outside of athletic opportunities, including the Our Kids (OK) program.