Trump admin pours $1 million into Indianapolis to fight growing gun violence

Ryan Martin
IndyStar

Indianapolis will soon see $1 million in federal grants as the Trump administration continues pouring money into efforts to combat the growing problem of gun violence here

Most of the money, about $800,000, is headed to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Much of that will be used to hire three crime analysts for three years who specialize in sniffing out leads in serious gun crimes. Another $250,000 will help the Marion County prosecutor's office handle a massive number of local gun cases, such as robberies. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the IMPD portion of the grant on Monday in Birmingham, Alabama to a gathering of public safety leaders, including IMPD Chief Bryan Roach and U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler.

Bryan Roach, IMPD Chief, at an event hosted by Young Men, Inc., a youth ministry, to draw attention to gun violence near the site of the recent shootings of three boys from Warren Central High School, one of them fatally, 38th and Moller Road, Indianapolis, Monday, May 8, 2017.

"We’re going to keep supporting you. We’re going to keep arming you with the tools, resources and expertise that you need to make your communities safe," Sessions said, according to a draft of his prepared remarks.

Sessions' announcement comes on the same day that the FBI released new crime data reinforcing a too-familiar message: violent crime continues to be a pervasive issue for the city. 

While Indianapolis saw a 2 percent decline in violent crime in 2017, according to the FBI data, total violent crime numbers remained higher than 2013-2015. 

Aggravated assaults grew by 200 incidents in 2017. Compared to 2014 — the last year before a particularly bloody stretch — aggravated assaults were up 17 percent.

The annual tally of criminal homicides also continues to grow each year. There are 114 criminal homicides this year, which is outpacing last year's record number of 155 by 11 percent, according to an IndyStar review of IMPD homicide data.

The problem has grown so dire that it's drawn in the federal government as the vanguard. Minkler — Trump's appointee to run federal law enforcement in Indianapolis — is executing an anti-crime strategy that's leading to record levels of federal gun prosecutions, according to federal data. 

Reached by phone from Birmingham, Minkler told IndyStar that the additional funding is the latest in a series of steps to support local law enforcement this year. IMPD, for example, is a participant in the federal Public Safety Partnership, which attracts training and funding toward the department. 

“We’re not just going after every felon with a gun," Minkler said. "We’re going after the most dangerous ones, and the people who are prohibited from having a gun who are trigger-pullers.”

Minkler has assigned federal prosecutors to each of IMPD's six districts to work alongside police commanders and federal agents in gun cases. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, meanwhile, is placing a federal agent and a task force officer in each district.

Monday's announcement will continue those efforts, said Agent Patrick Hand, an ATF supervisor in Indianapolis. 

“Working with IMPD, it’s going to plug a hole that we’ve had in our process where we’ve made great strides," Hand said. "One of the areas that we were lacking in was the analysis of the leads that are produced."

After a shooting, IMPD firearms liaisons collect any guns or shell casings left behind and take them as evidence to the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency. The crime lab then inserts that evidence into a massive database maintained by the ATF. 

Josh Minkler, United States Attorney

Each gun leaves behind a distinct marking on shell cases when it's fired, said IMPD Deputy Chief Chris Bailey, essentially creating a unique finger print for guns. 

New crime analysts will be able to hunt through the database to find when a gun has been used in multiple shootings. More importantly, the analysts will be tasked with generating what police call operational intelligence — which are leads that detectives can react to. 

“It’s more evidentiary-based," Chief Roach said. "It helps us target those people and solve cases.”

Grants also will pay for a research partner, new training on collecting gun evidence, travel to other cities to witness their anti-gun programs and new computers and other equipment, Roach said. 

Roach, who first learned about the federal dollars during Sessions' speech, said he's seeing other reasons to be optimistic about Indianapolis' future. 

The FBI data released Monday showed a decline of about 500 robberies compared to the prior year. Property crimes — such as burglaries, thefts and arson — were down 7.5 percent, a drop that is more than double the national average

Roach also cited preliminary 2018 data that paints an encouraging picture. Violent and property crimes are trending downward again this year, he said. 

“I’ve got a lot of confidence that we’re moving forward in the right direction," Roach said. "We’re going to stay the course."

Contact IndyStar reporter Ryan Martin at 317-444-6294 or ryan.martin@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter: @ryanmartin