INDIANAPOLIS — A billboard on interstate 70 was put up to send a message.
The president of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police Rick Snyder says that the billboard is letting the public know that officers want to do their best to serve the public. However, he says they can’t serve properly because of that shortage.
"The demand for officers is greater than the supply so the pure economics of that is many agencies are competing now with IMPD in terms of pay benefits and other things,” Snyder said.
According to Snyder, 16 recruits were sworn into IMPD in their last recruit class. He says the much-smaller Lawrence Police Department swore in 12 from its latest class.
"What we are hearing from many of our officers that are leaving is that they are going to suburban police departments where they have better schedules, better equipment, often times better or at least competitive pay,” Snyder said. “The most important thing is support from the community. "
According to the City of Indianapolis, the City County council gave IMPD the largest budget in the history of the city, $323 million dollars. That budget increased first year salaries to $72,000 dollars a year. It also included a three percent raise for veteran officers. The city also says it invested more in equipment like dash cams, drones, and license plate readers as well as public safety cameras.
"The draw to public service that there was in the 70's 80's and 90's isn't there anymore,” Courtney Rice, an Indianapolis resident said.
Rice has a background in public safety and has been a fire fighter for several years. He says conversations about officer shortages are happening across the country. He thinks younger generations are less interested in public service because of the pay and long hours it requires. He says it can often be harder to attract public safety workers to larger cities because there are more calls and runs which can be draining. He also says in smaller communities you can often climb the ranks more quickly.
"We just got to get more guys on the street and the only way to do that is to entice them to do it somehow,” Rice said.
But Snyder says that won’t happen unless the back end of the justice system makes changes, especially in the city of Indianapolis.
"Officers who are out here risking their lives to put very bad people in jail expect that the criminal justice system will then do their job to ensure accountability,” Snyder said. “We want fairness, we want transparency, and we want equal justice under the law. But that's got to occur and that's not occurring in Marion County. "
We asked IMPD about the billboard and how their staffing levels are doing and they sent us the following statement.
IMPD continues to recruit both sworn officers and professional staff, including public safety officers and public assistance officers who can assist and respond to non-emergency incidents. However, retention and recruiting for law enforcement continues to be a challenge, not only here locally, but across the country. Agencies, big and small are facing officer shortages, and the IMPD is no different.
Our community expects its police department to work with them to reduce violent crime, respond to 911 calls for service, engage with them, and maintain our high levels of training.
All future service and staffing decisions will be based on those priorities. As we move forward, the IMPD will continue to be transparent and will provide appropriate notice before any significant change in services.
Recently, IMPD districts have taken a more hands-on approach when it comes to recruitment. These informal events, which are held at the district, allow individuals interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement to engage with officers and ask questions about the application process. These events have been highly successful and we invite the community to join us at our next event on Thursday April 25 at Southeast District from 5 - 7 p.m.
IMPD’s 2024 appropriated and adopted budget fully funds 1743 officers. As of April 10, 2024, we have 1477 sworn officers.
Those interested in joining the IMPD can head to JoinIMPD.Indy.gov to apply for both sworn and professional staff positions.
