Indianapolis
city leaders reached a bipartisan budget deal today that would pay for 80
police recruits next year, more than offsetting coming retirements.
But
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s aides and City-County Council leaders admit
that’s only a start in addressing the city’s need for more officers.
They
will have their work cut out for them after the council’s 26-2 approval tonight
of the $1 billion city-county budget for 2014.
In
coming months, the council’s planned IMPD Staffing Study Commission, proposed
tonight, could take a deeper look at how many officers the Indianapolis
Metropolitan Police Department needs. It also would consider funding options —
potentially including tax increases — that could ratchet up the ranks in coming
years.
The
city, which has about 1,540 officers, would need nearly 700 more to reach parity
with other cities, according to a Department of Public Safety report this year.
While some see that estimate as high, they concede that the city still could
use hundreds more officers.
Ballard’s
initial budget proposal already had called for a single class of 50 recruits in
late 2014.
The
mayor and council leaders, including President Maggie Lewis, said their
agreement to balance the budget — by tapping three one-time sources of money
for $15 million — would allow the city to field another class of 30 recruits
sooner, in April.
It
also would pay for contractual 3 percent raises, delayed by six months to July
1, for the police and fire unions, if the unions agree. The firefighters are
voting this week on a proposal that also includes a two-year contract
extension, through 2016.
So
far, though, the police union has resisted Ballard’s attempt to renegotiate and
hasn’t been sent a formal offer.
A
Northeastside crime captain and the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police
welcomed the budget deal’s inclusion of more police hiring.
But
they said the total of 80 recruits still was insufficient.
“It’s just a tiny bit better than nothing,
that’s all it is,” said Pam Brown, the crime watch coordinator for the Binford
Redevelopment and Growth community group. “It’s unfair to the citizens —
because we’re not protected — and unfair to the police officers, because
they’re unprotected without enough officers to back them up.”
…
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