Indianapolis, Indiana — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department sponsored a community discussion on Wednesday night in an effort to clarify matters and foster greater openness regarding the way the department handles inquiries.
About 20 individuals came out to IMPD’s Community Conversation Wednesday night at the Community Justice Center.
“It’s just that it’s a conversation. We need to listen. We all need to listen to each other,” IMPD Victim Assistance Manager Lisa Brown said. “We’re just going to be educating people on what we do and then we are going to listen to their concerns.”
Six different agencies within IMPD and local law enforcement spoke at the meeting:
• IMPD Homicide
• IMPD Crime Lab
• Chaplain
• IMPD Victim’s Assistance
• Marion County Coroner’s Office
• Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
They all responded to frequent inquiries such as “Why does it take so long to process a crime scene?” and “What prevents police from making arrests and bringing it to court?”
Family members of murder victims made up a large portion of those present.
Regarding how they thought the meeting went, there were differing opinions.
“I feel like I didn’t get nowhere,” said Derico Young, whose daughter was murdered in May 2021. “Because I had questions and I just had to stop. Because it’s like I’m not about to tear up because this here is just too much and it’s just not right. I don’t know who they’re here for.”
“I personally think it went well,” said Lachelle Norton, whose son was murdered in January 2019. “I didn’t like what the prosecutor said unfortunately we have a lot of homicides going on in our city because of Indiana laws.”
The following were the top three complaints made to authorities:
• Response times from police and not getting calls back from authorities
• Indiana laws limiting when a case can be tried or a person charged
• Lack of clarity from prosecutors and police when it comes to details of what’s going on with the case
In general, individuals we spoke with expressed their gratitude for law enforcement’s efforts to provide them with answers, even though they may still have questions.
“I’ve been to community meetings before where they just talk and we just sit there,” said Cheryl Shockley, whose son was murdered in Aug. 2020. “So this where you can ask questions was very good. Even though there is no real satisfaction ultimately.”
Anyone who couldn’t attend the meeting is encouraged to phone IMPD with any inquiries. Call Crime Stoppers with any information regarding recent crimes at (317) 262-TIPS.
