Source: (Photo: Eric Berman/WIBC)
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis police starting Friday night will work to prevent “informal mass gatherings” in parking areas in the Broad Ripple neighborhood.
The Friday afternoon announcement came during a news conference including the Democrat mayor, the police chief and representatives of the Broad Ripple Village Association. That group announced earlier this week that all bars and restaurants are closing daily at 1 a.m., which began early Thursday.
The changes in Broad Ripple have come after a shooting early Sunday left three people dead and a fourth wounded. Also, someone had been wounded in another shooting in early May.
Jordan Dillon, executive director of the Broad Ripple Village Association, has previously said the violence left people who live and work in the north side neighborhood feeling defeated and deflated.
Chief Randal Taylor of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said at Friday afternoon news conference that the area is popular for patrons but, unfortunately, also for people who just want to hang out at night.
Mayor Joe Hogsett called Broad Ripple a neighborhood that other parts of Indianapolis aspire to be. The mayor then outlined the changes coming to Broad Ripple parking lots. “The large Broad Ripple Station parking lot has been an informal mass gatherings. Beginning at 11 p.m. tonight, the lot will be closed with DPW (Department of Public Works) barriers. This is being done at the owner’s request, and trespassing will be enforced by IMPD officers.”
IMPD also will set up cameras for other problem parking lots, and IMPD will enforce trespassing in parking lots as requested by their operators.
IMPD Deputy Chief Chris Bailey adds that officers will tell people who park at 10:30 p.m. in the restricted parking lots that they may risk having their cars towed. Also, he says, six camera towers will be placed in the village to watch the area for “issues” that businesses and residents are seeing.
Also, Hogsett said, Broad Ripple businesses will be asked to keep lights on after hours. The mayor also said light towers also will be set up in the Broad Ripple Station parking lot and in other places, as requested, for the area.
Bailey also said said metered parking will be limited.
The mayor also used the news conference to criticize a state law, which will be a year old Saturday, that allowed permitless carry of handguns in Indiana.
Hogsett said, “If that law was a test to see if a more openly armed society would be more polite society, I consider the test failed. That law was opposed by law enforcement all over the the state including the Indiana State Police and IMPD. I also opposed its passage, and this point, I shouldn’t have to explain why.”
He says permitless carry has not led to a safer Indiana, and it’s limited what police can ask about a gun.
“In fact, police under current law are required to assume every gun they see on a hip is being legally carried.”
Hogsett also noted that Indianapolis has seen a 10% decrease in murders this year, after an overall 16% decline in murders in 2022.
