IMPD, OPHS Announce Summer Violence Prevention Efforts

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Office of Public Health and Safety announced plans Wednesday to reduce violence during the summer through various partnerships with community groups and education programs.

OPHS’ violence reduction team is collaborating with community groups to hold “safe Saturdays” throughout the summer.

Director of Community Violence Reduction Shonna Majors says if kids have somewhere to be, they’re less likely to make poor decisions.

“We really want to have extended hours to some of those community centers to allow kids to have a safe place to be,” Majors says. “Where we’re not trying to police their activity, but just encourage them to make good decisions.”

The “safe Saturdays” program is just one of the initiatives announced today. They also introduced the Our Kids program and Social Harm Spot Policing.

The Our Kids program, or OK, focuses on connecting minority communities with police enforcement, especially young men in high school.

IMPD Major Kendale Adams says the OK program's goal to build strong connections between African American youth and the local police enforcement.

“The program relies on a strong advocacy and mentorship of police officers and other African American men,” Adams says. “To help guide, provide values, and reward participants for striving for a productive and useful life free from violence and circumstances that lead to senseless death or devastating incarceration.”

Jeremey Carter, a professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, introduced a new data application that will help police officers position themselves in “focus areas” where several factors such as crime, mental illness, car crashes, suicides and substance abuse are concentrated.

“Essentially what this program does is it maps and uses math to figure out where are the places in the city where crime, drug overdoses, suicide attempts, vehicle crashes, a whole host of different things that our community can experience,” Carter says.  “How can we best anticipate where those places will be in the city at any given time? And then, that provides a tool for the officers to utilize and be more present, be more proactive in those places.”

More than 70 people attended the announcement, including Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, City-County Councillor Maggie Lewis, IMPD Chief Bryan Roach, and IMPD Deputy Chief Josh Barker.