INDIANAPOLIS -- The Northwest Community Resource District Council held a Color of Law roundtable on Monday night to clarify to the public the evaluation Indianapolis Metro Police are undergoing.
In April, IMPD announced they asked for a partnership with the Department of Justice and the COPS Office to look into their policies and procedures surrounding officer-involved shootings.
IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said they made the request for a Critical Response program from the COPS Office to fund an external, third-party review after seeing that 2023 had 18 police action shootings.
“We saw an uptick in our officer-involved shootings,” said Chief Bailey. “We average about 10 a year since 2015”.
Community members pushed for the evaluation to find out why Indianapolis is following this upward trend.
”I think it's extremely important,” said the president of Concerned Clergy, Pastor David Greene Sr. “It's critical that over the next few months that this takes place, and that a report is provided, that you get community input along with law enforcement, and then that report is shared out, so that actually we can improve as a city.”
Around 30 people attended Monday night’s discussion.
Many pressed for answers on use of force and how the partnership with the COPS Office is going.
One of the clarifications made is that the FBI and DOJ look into the violations of federal law and civil rights when it comes to police action shootings.
“That's something we take extremely seriously, and we regularly do investigate and prosecute those matters, and want the public to understand how we approach that and why it is so important to us,” said Zach Meyers, Southern District attorney with the DOJ.
However, they do not investigate misconduct in procedures and policies of the police department.
The evaluation will be looking at IMPD’s training and tactics surrounding officer-involved shootings, but not the individuals’ actions in past incidents.
“We have processes right now that review officer-involved shooting instances - prosecutor review, its criminal investigation, its internal investigation, and we have civilian majority and led boards that ultimately review and provide recommendations,” said Chief Bailey.
He added in August there will be some interviews conducted. He's unsure when the report will be complete, but hopes by the end of the year.
For more information on the COPS Office, click here. For more data from IMPD on officer-involved shootings, click here.