INDIANAPOLIS--You heard last week that the Indianapolis Metro Police Dept. is planning to hold town halls to hear people’s concerns about crime in their neighborhoods. The first of those is scheduled for Monday night for people who live in the southeast part of the city.
Chief Randal Taylor said he hopes that people in all six districts will tune in to express their feelings and concerns and even specifics about crime in their district.
The FB page for the Southeast District
“We’ve got things that we’re gonna do in each district and of course, lowering crime numbers is gonna be throughout all the districts,” he told WISH TV in a Monday morning interview. “Each district has got a little different flavor about what the residents are seeing and that’s what we want to hear.”
Taylor said the first two meetings will be held virtually.
“Tonight the mayor, Commander Hicks and myself will be at this one. We’ll have some statements, pass on some information. But, we’re really hoping the community will log on and share their feelings.”
Taylor said the department has been listening to the community, crediting the residents of Indianapolis with some of the changes the department has made in the past couple of years.
“We’ve listened to the community from the beginning of my tenure as chief when people were talking about not wanting choke holds and didn’t want us to use no-knock warrants and that kind of things. We’ve listened to those and changed out policies. So, we do listen,” he said. “The community spoke out on body cams and we have those and those have been great. So, we’ll continue to listen.”
Taylor said there have already been improvements this year in crime numbers.
“We’re a little bit lower in the numbers, which is always a good thing. I think a lot of that has to do with the community’s willingness to give us a call and let us know what’s going on,” he said. “Even after those crimes are committed the community has been there to walk us through and let us know what they saw. We’ve made some good arrests because of those things and we hope to continue along that line.”
