INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD records indicate that the number of reported serious felonies it investigates has steadily dropped over the last couple years, and to keep that momentum going, department commanders have launched a data-driven directed policing strategy to have street officers better familiarize themselves with the communities they patrol and help develop possible solutions.
”The idea is a small number of locations where we have the best opportunity to reduce crime,” explained Deputy Chief of Operations Michael Wolley, “and so the officers will be responsible for being visible, they’ll be responsible for foot patrols, directed patrols, having conversations and starting to problem solve. We want our patrol officers to become problem solvers.”
That may be a challenge for a police department with just 1,468 officers, about 400 fewer than Mayor Joe Hogsett had budgeted for, and struggling to fill its most recent Academy classes with more than 20 recruits as veteran patrol officers leave the force in numbers greater than they are being replaced.
Besides patrolling shorthanded, many officers assigned from across Indianapolis may be pulling overtime shifts in unfamiliar parts of town, leaving them little time or incentive to investigate their temporary beats.
”While it is built on principles of hot spot policing and other evidence-based policing components, we’re really just using the data to drive our resources,” said Wolley. ”The idea is really just engagement, be visible in parts of the community.”
Wolley wants his shift supervisors to encourage officers to get out of their vehicles and converse face-to-face with residents, business owners and community leaders to learn the myriad of challenges their neighborhoods encounter.
”It is based off of several days worth of data that really drives where our resources go. Ideally, what we would like to see is our officers do what we call directed patrols whether its on foot or bike or just spending time in the community.”
Last year at this time IMPD, detectives had investigated 88 homicides.
This year that number is down to 79 and those figures are significantly lower than the last couple years.
”We’re looking at historical locations, we’re looking at really trying to understand what is driving crime in that area,” said Wolley. ”What we have found is that there are small parts of the community where crime or violence is concentrated and you have the greatest opportunity for impact for your overall crime numbers if you spend time in those areas.”
In the mid-teens, IMPD adopted a surge strategy that flooded zones with officers in order to make arrests and provide a sense of security for residents who may have felt they were under siege from crime.
”The Surge was overwhelming numbers of officers in certain areas,” recalled Wolley who was a patrolman on Northwest District then. “That’s not what we’re looking to do. We are legitimately looking at areas that based on the data show that we need to be there. We are not looking to make a ton of arrests.”
Wolley said data analysts will review the figures coming out of the neighborhoods earmarked for added police emphasis to determine if the strategy is a success so that officers could be redeployed to another area.