(Photo from WISH)
Police advocates from Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and other cities met Friday with President Trump to discuss local crime concerns.
Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) leaders spent more than an hour briefing the President on violent crime trends, inadequate sentencing, dangers facing officers and calls for increased city accountability, according to Indianapolis FOP head Rick Snyder.
“I was able to share with the president that in the last 28 days, we’ve had at least 65 people shot [in Indianapolis]; 20 have been killed and 19 have been stabbed,” Snyder told WIBC news partner WISH-TV. “You could see that he was infuriated [by the rise in local homicides].”
Indianapolis FOP members had previously slammed top city officials’ violent crime reduction efforts as ineffective, especially at tackling recidivism.
For months, Snyder had waged a social media campaign to drum up community outrage in hopes of sparking action, tweeting news stories about local crime and using the hashtags #WheresTheOutrage and #IAmOutraged.
President Trump’s response Friday was encouraging, Snyder told WIBC’s Hammer and Nigel Monday afternoon.
“In the cabinet room, the President relayed his outrage,” Snyder added. “And he was asking, ‘Where’s the outrage?’”
Snyder has repeatedly called for increased police resources, investment in community-police partnerships, an overhaul of Indy’s juvenile justice system and elimination of $500 cash bond options for repeat violent offenders.
No immediate action was taken as a result of Friday’s meeting but the president vowed to “keep the conversation going,” according to Snyder.
Click the link below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s interview with FOP President Rick Snyder.
