Source: Photo: Donnie Burgess
INDIANAPOLIS — Police in Indianapolis will now begin enforcing the state’s curfew law.
“I want to begin by saying what we saw play out in downtown last weekend was simply unacceptable,” said Chief Chris Bailey of Indianapolis Metro Police in a Thursday press conference. Seven kids between the ages of 12 and 17 were shot last weekend. Police say the kids had planned to meet up with a rival group and fight.
However, that wasn’t the only problem. Chief Bailey said several people were jumped and harassed, and it cannot keep happening.
“IMPD will begin enforcement of the state’s curfew laws throughout our city,” Chief Bailey continues, “it is not the job of IMPD officers to babysit your children. We will not, and we cannot do it.”
“Parents and guardians will be granted a reasonable amount of time to pick up their child,” said IMPD Deputy Chief Tanya Terry, “if contact with parents or guardians cannot be established, the juvenile will be transported to the Juvenile Detention Center for a status offense.”
IMPD patrol cars will begin a thirty-minute curfew countdown Friday. The countdown will include a fifteen-minute warning, and then an official announcement of the curfew. Chief Bailey said police aren’t looking to make mass arrests, but if groups are sticking around, they have to go. In addition to the curfew, IMPD will staff more people to watch downtown security cameras, and more uniformed officers will patrol the streets.
In another attempt to get kids moving, 315 downtown businesses have entered into a trespass agreement, which will allow business owners to call in police and get people moved away from their business more efficiently.
When it comes to the parents of the kids involved in last week’s mass shooting, Chief Bailey said the department is working with Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears to possibly press charges against those parents, based on information Bailey said the department has.
“I’m again asking parents to step up and be a parent,” said Chief Bailey.
