Senate Republican crime bill package targeting Marion County advances

A package of bills introduced by Indiana Senate Republicans that aim to reduce violent crime passed a committee vote Tuesday.

The bills were unveiled last month, and members of the Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law heard testimony on the bills last week. They include stricter bail rules for violent crimes arrestees, more regulations for nonprofit bail organizations, and pilot programs to address crime in Marion County and downtown Indianapolis.

All four bills passed a committee vote, but Democratic members of the committee opposed most of them.

Sen. Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis), one of two Democratic members on the committee, said he thinks the bills were becoming too political, after some amendments he suggested were not adopted.

“I can't help but believe that this is getting down into politics. And I just don't understand it, because the victims don't have a political party. These murders, they're dead people,” he said. “But for some reason, we can't come together and work on this stuff.”

Taylor added that he will make more suggestions to the bills as they make their way through the legislative process.

Republican committee members who authored the bills said they are confident the bills will be beneficial and help curb violent crime.

The bills will move on to a second reading in the Senate.

Contact WFYI criminal justice reporter Katrina Pross at kpross@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @katrina_pross.

Pross is a Corps Member of Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.