Interim IMPD Chief Claims Crime Is Down

You have to listen to it to believe it. Interim IMPD Chief Rick Hite would have Indianapolis residents believe that crime in the city is going down after spiking up at the beginning of the year, which he credits to zone policing. Under zone policing, the department deploys large numbers of police officers to areas experiencing the most crime, while leaving vast areas of the city with few or no cops at all working a regular beat. Some councilors and community activists complain that the response time it takes to get police to respond to reports of crime in their neighborhoods is too long. Hite defended a letter of recommendation that he wrote to a judge on behalf of an ex-sex offender, Byron Alston, for an alleged probation violation, and which drew fire from critics because of an apparent violation of department rules. Hite claimed that he was simply offering support to the work of Alston's organization, the Ten Point Coalition, and not to Alston personally. On that attack of a senior citizen last week on the Monon Trail, Hite wants you to know that it's the Department of Homeland Security's responsibility and not IMPD's responsibility to maintain those surveillance cameras on the Monon Trail that were found not to be operating. Click here to listen to Amos Brown's interview with Hite.