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INDIANAPOLIS — The system is broken, and as long as it remains that way, violent crime will continue in Indianapolis.

That’s just part of the message Rick Snyder, President of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police, brought with him on his appearance on 93 WIBC’s The Gun Guy with Guy Relford.

Snyder spoke about the city’s record-breaking violence, the police effort to combat crime, and how criminal justice legislation needs to improve in the near future.

Snyder says officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department are doing everything they can to tackle crime, but as far as officers are concerned, nothing will change under the current system.

“They [police] are seeing that for all the work they are doing, they are arresting the people that are committing these crimes, but it’s the criminal justice system that’s broken,” Snyder tells Guy Relford, “and it’s a revolving door of a broken criminal justice system that’s allowing violent, repeat offenders to get right back out into our neighborhoods.”

Violent crime is on track to break records set in 2020, according to Snyder. He says the lack of a decrease in crime is not on the shoulders of IMPD.

Snyder explains, “ultimately, it doesn’t matter how many arrests we make, and all the good police work that we’re doing and trying to interrupt the cycles of violence. None of that matters if the system simply lets those bad actors right back out – in fact, it emboldens them.”

The blame for that failing system is one that Snyder would like to put at the feet of local politicians.

“They are the same ones that are allowing this to occur, and we’re watching our fellow neighbors being slaughtered in our city, and I don’t say that lightly,” Snyder tells Relford, “when last year we had an all-time record of 245 homicides and this year, we’re on track to exceed that – that is a crisis.”

Snyder has proposed many ideas that he believes could reduce violent crime in the Circle City, if enacted immediately. One such idea Snyder discussed on The Gun Guy is having an immediate background history conducted after an arrest.

“Whatever system you have in place, you need something that allows for a human being, a human judge, to immediately review prior bad acts and prior convictions, especially for violent offenses when looking at new arrests,” Snyder explains.

You can hear Rick Snyder’s full interview on The Gun Guy with Guy Relford below: