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Seventy-two new IMPD recruits will report to the police academy for further training Tuesday morning.
Deron MolenINDIANAPOLIS – Mayor Greg Ballard welcomed 72 new police recruits to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Monday.
Those recruits were the second wave of an initiative launched by Ballard in January to add more than 100 new officers to IMPD. That comes on the heels of the 80 new cops the department added in 2014.
Ballard hopes the expanding police force will help curb Indianapolis’ rising crime rate.
The 72 recruits in this fall’s class were chosen out of a pool of more than 1,900 applicants.
Indianapolis native Dejoure Mercer was among the recruits.
“It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” Mercer said. “Honestly, since I was four years old, watching cops on TV definitely promoted [the idea of becoming a police officer] in my head.”
Mercer and the other recruits will report to the police academy for further training Tuesday morning.
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