Indianapolis Public Safety Director Troy Riggs Stepping Down For Job at IUPUI

INDIANAPOLIS -- The director of public safety in Indianapolis will leave that role later this summer for a position in higher education.

IUPUI announced Wednesday that Riggs will join the faculty at the Indianapolis campus in August. Riggs will oversee public safety projects and hold a teaching position related to applied research in criminal justice in the public policy institute.

Riggs led a data-driven intitative within public safety to identify Indianapolis' most crime-ridden neighborhoods. The department launched an effort to reduce crime in six focus zones earlier this year by pouring city and nonprofit resources into the neighborhoods.

Wednesday afternoon, Riggs addressed the media before the opening of a mobile food pantry in one of those zones.

"When I arrived here, it is no secret that morale was down, that the community had lost some trust in the department of public safety. I think that trust has been restored," he said.

Public safety makes up 85 percent of Indianapolis’ budget. The state legislature needs to overhaul the funding system for cities needs to be addressed in order to ensure public safety is always fully funded, Riggs said.

Riggs has been public safety director under Republican Mayor Greg Ballard for three years. He joined the Ballard administration in 2012 after jobs in law enforcement in Louisville, Kentucky and Corpus Cristi, Texas.

Ballard will now be forced to find a new public safety director with just a few months remaining in his term. Ballard is not running for re-election and will leave office in January.

"It sounds like that those that are running for office, for mayor and also for council, are going to continue to build on that foundation" we've laid so far, Riggs said.