Comments on Advance Indiana™: Police Merger Study Confirms No Net Savings Achieved

Anon 2:04 PM - why would IMPD be returned to the c...

2014-07-18T07:20:45.471-05:00

Anon 2:04 PM - why would IMPD be returned to the control of the sheriff? It is a city police agency. The city is headed by the mayor, not the sheriff.
Sheriffs are responsible for taking care of the jail, court room security, and serving papers. In rural areas, they do have patrol functions, along with the state police, but Indianapolis city is the entire county (except for the exempt towns.)

So is IMPD going to be returned to the supervision...

2014-07-17T14:04:16.712-05:00

So is IMPD going to be returned to the supervision and authority of the Marion County Sheriff? Will IMPD officers will answer to MCSO?

Very interesting.

The merger should save money and the CCC needs to ...

2014-07-17T13:26:22.160-05:00

The merger should save money and the CCC needs to act and make it happen.

1. Require a job description for all MCSD jobs, with commensurate pay scale. (This would eliminate the cronyism that currently takes place as pointed out by Anon 10:18). The cronyism MUST GO in order to save money. Every "good-ole-boy" currently can call the Sheriff (D) and get a make-work, do-nothing job with a county car, that is unjustified. Prime example: The former fire chief appointed under that system as a "lieutenant colonel" in the Sheriff Dept, with no law enforcement or corrections experience. Requiring a CCC approved job description and approval to create every position would trim the fat out of the Sheriff Dept.

2. The CCC should require a written justification for any MCSD member with a take-home car and funding for same only given if justification is shown. (Keeping in my he does not provide emergency services, I can't think of any readily justifiable reason for a take-home car.) This would provide a great savings in terms of vehicles, maintenance, and gas.

1) Knowledgeable people tried for almost three yea...

2014-07-17T10:18:37.453-05:00

1) Knowledgeable people tried for almost three years to convince people that the "con"solidation was a fraud, & would cost the public more money. Nobody would listen.
2) There are no "Pay raises promised behind-closed doors to the FOP under a new contract" that I am aware of. Contracts with IPD/IMPD are public documents. You should realize that at least two times, the police had their contractual pay raises delayed by 6 months in order for the city to have money to do other things. The police also had to settle for contracts that gave a ZERO increase for at least one year.
3) Why isn't someone trying to find out why MCSO has so many fully marked, fully equipped (INCLUDING RADAR) vehicles? They have no patrol duties, so why do they need that equipment?
They also get their car washes paid for and uniforms issued and dry cleaning paid for by tax dollars.
4) Why does the MCSO need so many deputy chiefs? Why do they create positions for the favored people? How many high ranking people were transferred to IMPD, then a short time later, returned to MCSO with a new title and high rank (Eva Talley-Sanders)?
What about Lieutenant Colonel Louis A. Dezelan who was replaced as IFD Chief?
There is a lot more to this story than is being published.

I think it's important to point out that a num...

2014-07-17T09:02:38.891-05:00

I think it's important to point out that a number of those deputies employed by the sheriff do perform law enforcement-related duties that would otherwise have to be employed by IMPD. The IMPD Staffing Commission Report is very misleading when it compares the size of our police force to other cities. For example, it includes municipalities within Marion County (i.e. Lawrence, Speedway, Beech Grove, etc.) that have their own police forces, but it doesn't exclude their population numbers from the city's size when comparing the number of people served per police officer. If that number mattered, Detroit should have one of the safest cities in America. It's smaller than Indianapolis but has about 1,000 more police officers.

The total staff of the sheriff's department wa...

2014-07-17T06:23:12.512-05:00

The total staff of the sheriff's department was 1352 prior to the merger, including 1018 deputies. The year following the merger, its total staff was 912, including 646 deputies. Last year, the sheriff had a staff of 989, including 676 deputies.

One of the reasons there is no savings with the Po...

2014-07-17T04:55:57.843-05:00

One of the reasons there is no savings with the Police merger is the exploding budget of the Marion County Sheriff.
That department was allowed to expand to the workforce of pre-merger status. Look at their budget the pre-merger date and look today, I don't have the means to look, but I do know their manpower is almost were it was pre-merger, the only difference is now they don't have merit officers, their all civilians, and don't have to have ILEA certified like IMPD or the rest of the State of Indiana. The Sheriff waves his wan, now your a deputy!