Comments on Advance Indiana™: Straub Draws Ire Of IMPD

I remember when Hudnut pissed off IPD back in the ...

2010-08-07T02:45:14.795-05:00

I remember when Hudnut pissed off IPD back in the mid 70s, a bunch of officers parked their cars on a city street with lights and sirens going and locked them, then walked away after tossing the keys into some trash cans or baskets, can't remember which. I think he was looking at reducing take home cars.

Even the tiny town of Speedway has been talking about having a dir of public safety, word is town manager Barbara Lawrence wants to keep the police and fire depts under her thumb, and this is her way of bypassing the police commission to get that done.

I guess we'll really know we've hit rock bottom in our governmental leadership if Glenn Beck give Obama a break one night and tears into Ballard.

Ballard is proving to be a very incompetent man. H...

2010-08-05T20:34:11.669-05:00

Ballard is proving to be a very incompetent man. He is also nothing like the guy he made himself out to be during his campaign. He hired Straub as a buffer between him and community violence. He thinks that the community will blame Straub instead of him for community violence helping to get him reelected. The public will see through Ballard’s nonsense. This guy Straub is a sniveling little elitist liberal. Why would a guy like Ballard who calls himself a conservative hire a guy like Straub? The answer is simple; Ballard is a RINO and not a conservative.

"... This was not a big secret. It was planne...

2010-08-05T19:18:54.681-05:00

"... This was not a big secret. It was planned for months and now the FOP is scrambling becasue the contract will be voted down..."
Tea Party, since you seem to know so much about all of this, why don't you enlighten us?
Be sure to explain to us exactly when the FOP learned that the detectives would be moved.

I don't know what it means. It may easily hav...

2010-08-05T18:59:42.229-05:00

I don't know what it means. It may easily have nothing to do with this.

All I know is almost daily I pass by the new FOP hall in the former Shelby St Federal bank building, 1400 S Shelby St (at I-65). The parking and another scross the street have been packed every time with IMPD cars and uniformed officers streaming in.

This only started over the past couple of weeks.
Sure looks like something big is going on.

News reports say that Straub was rejected....

2010-08-05T18:41:39.589-05:00

News reports say that Straub was rejected....

The FOP has just as much to blame with this. They ...

2010-08-05T15:15:28.595-05:00

The FOP has just as much to blame with this. They have a labor management committe that was not in-tuned with what was going on. You now have 66 detectives being moved. This was not a big secret. It was planned for months and now the FOP is scrambling becasue the contract will be voted down.

Gee, I would agree with you. This is terrific rep...

2010-08-05T13:00:46.890-05:00

Gee,

I would agree with you. This is terrific reporting from Gary. He scooped every publication in town on the turmoil in the Department. And my sources confirm tha he's exactly correct on what he's published here.

Very well written article. It opened my eyes to a ...

2010-08-05T11:37:13.655-05:00

Very well written article. It opened my eyes to a lot of the turmoil downtown that I hadn't really known about (or maybe I just wasn't paying attention), although I just knew Straub would turn out to be a terrible choice for Indy.

See this article posted on Craigs List. It was wri...

2010-08-05T10:58:15.912-05:00

See this article posted on Craigs List. It was written by a retired officer.

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/rnr/1881814409.html

IS, We attorneys are all "doctors." Ev...

2010-08-05T10:25:12.010-05:00

IS,

We attorneys are all "doctors." Everyone from now on needs to call me Dr. Ogden.

HISTORY will show that IPD detectives have been &q...

2010-08-05T10:17:12.645-05:00

HISTORY will show that IPD detectives have been "de-centralized" several times since the Goldsmith years.
Did it EVER work? NO!
That's why, quietly, over a period of a year or two, they were always put back the way they were.
Actually, FRANK, there may be a person or two in this city that know how to run a police department better than you. Even if you ARE a DOCTOR.

"Jon Mayes, with fashioning a new gun ban ord...

2010-08-05T10:10:28.512-05:00

"Jon Mayes, with fashioning a new gun ban ordinance that might pass constitutional scrutiny, especially as it applies to public property and parks."

Jon Mayes knows as much about constitutional law as I know about brain surgery. The man had two years legal experience when he got his job at City Legal. His only training on "constitutional law" is maybe a consitutional law class in law school.

Sorry, that's what I get for skimming..eyes ar...

2010-08-05T09:29:39.732-05:00

Sorry, that's what I get for skimming..eyes aren't as good as during the younger years.

I thought my post was clear on that point. He had ...

2010-08-05T09:21:15.180-05:00

I thought my post was clear on that point. He had a dispute with the city council over the work hours of police and firefighters. The council claimed he defied the policy they enacted. He resigned after the council called an emergency meeting to terminate him.

Anyone know why he was forced out of White Plains ...

2010-08-05T08:40:41.445-05:00

Anyone know why he was forced out of White Plains NY employment????

Guys, there is no longer a Chief of Police, it is ...

2010-08-05T08:23:08.267-05:00

Guys, there is no longer a Chief of Police, it is a figure head at best. Straub runs the show. Even the Mayor is kissing this guys ass.

At least he can put three words togeather unlike our Mayor.

The Chief position is for PR purposes only. He does not run the IMPD. Straub does. If you question this you will be sent to the property room to spend the rest of your days. As have three officers in the past four weeks.

Mark my words, with in a year Straub will be trying to take our guns. He is a left wing liberal from NYC who has no understanding of the IMPD. The guys on the street hate the man. How he got this job is way beyond me.

Straub, this is not NYC. We have values and we like our guns. Crawl back into the gutter that you came from and leave the IMPD alone. They were doing just find untill you got here.

The Chief has been told that he must go through Strab to contact him. Straub has set up the Chief for failure. The Chief no longer has any contact with the Mayor,.have you noticed the Chief and the Mayor togeather at any Press conferences???...NO

Straub is a camera whore. The Chief has been told to stand down. Way to go there Mayor.

Personally, if I was mayor, I would want the polic...

2010-08-04T20:20:24.444-05:00

Personally, if I was mayor, I would want the police chief and fire chief to report directly to me. I agree it is a wasted level of bureaucracy that is out-of-touch on many levels. You can see that in the hires that are being made for his office. It flies in the face of what Ballard said he wanted when he was running for mayor. But I think Ballard really doesn't want to deal with these issues directly himself as he indicated during his run for mayor; he wants someone else to make all of the tough decisions while he is having fun running around making feel good public appearances and taking junkets.

I think I might have to read that all again to rea...

2010-08-04T19:29:31.889-05:00

I think I might have to read that all again to really digest the information.

A commenter over at Abdul's blog, Think Again, has continually questioned the need for the Public Safety Director's office, claiming it's just a middleman between the 25th floor and the departmental heads of IMPD, animal control, etc...

Do you think there's any truth to that? What role does Public Safety Director really serve.

As for the PHd title, that sounds extremely petty. I would hope that our municipal government is staffed by adults, but apparently that's too much to hope for.

I have noticed that this Public Safety Director se...

2010-08-04T19:10:00.938-05:00

I have noticed that this Public Safety Director seems to have megalomania!

Since coming to Indy, he interrupts questions media pose to the Police Chief on TV, wants to be the one on camera when people and media want Police responses...

This black-out of police communicating with media is disturbing and demonstrative of a control-freak or megalomaniac.

I also noticed that police now have to have public safety around their logo...why is that?

The micromanagment of the police department has been obvious, but there is a fire department in public safety. I wonder if Straub knows the name of the fire chief....

What did Straub do to reduce costs during FDIC? Did he have firemen on overtime hanging out during FDIC while apparatus was out of service at FDIC?

I really get the impression this outsider thinks he is a public safety director of a small town like White Plains, NY, with no crime...instead of the biggest city in the state!

Mayor Ballard, Straub has proven a poor choice. Now this report that police executives are prohibited from contacting the Mayor is very disturbing!

I have a question: What if the Chief of Police contacts the mayor? What if his staff contacts the mayor? -I have reviewed the City Code and found that the Public Safety Director cannot fire or discipline police officers. That is law. The mayor himself appoints the police chief, so why can't that appointee directly speak with the mayor???

Get rid of Straub now before further damage is done. I have a feeling Straub will embarrass a good mayor.

Why not report on the PIO (Public Information Offi...

2010-08-04T19:02:14.723-05:00

Why not report on the PIO (Public Information Officer) Confrontation by Straub on Sgt. Mount.

These Coppers are not going to take any crap from this New York "Carl Brizzi" style Lunkhead who likes to hear himself talk...