Property owners may pay tab for new cops
A study commission examining staffing issues within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is one step closer toward developing a plan to finance hundreds of new officers for the city.
The commission’s plan — agreed upon Tuesday, though not finalized, after almost three months of discussion — recommends to the City-County Council suggestions for financing 100 IMPD recruits every year through 2018.
But that plan to bolster IMPD’s ranks likely will come as a cost to taxpayers. The department needs an additional $30 million to pay for those new recruits. Among the suggestions is gradually eliminating the homestead property tax credit, which lowers tax bills for 75 percent of city homeowners. Eliminating it would increase property taxes by $30 or less for most homeowners.
If implemented, the move would raise about $7.5 million for IMPD.
While Indianapolis city leaders were able to reach a bipartisan budget deal last fall that will pay for 80 police recruits this year, the city — which has about 1,540 officers — still needs to add about 700 more officers to reach parity with other similarly sized cities, according to a Department of Public Safety report released last year.
Department officials over the past year have repeatedly stressed that something needs to be done to boost IMPD’s ranks, which are battling an increase in violence but dwindling from retirements and a dearth of recruitment classes.
“By us being so understaffed, officers are sort of tied to the run queue of responding from run to run,” said Lloyd Crowe, IMPD’s assistant chief of police. “It leaves a lot less time to engage in community policing-type activities.”
Adopting a community policing model is one that officials hope could reduce the level of violence in the city.
So far this year, the city has seen 45 criminal homicides — including an overnight shooting that left one man dead and another injured on the Eastside.
That’s compared with 37 over the same time period last year, which by December had become the deadliest year in Indianapolis since 2006.
John Barth, a council member who also is on the staffing commission, said the commission’s homestead credit suggestion would phase out the credit over the next four years. That phase-out, he said, would help city leaders look for other ways to mitigate the effect the elimination could have on funding for schools.
Eliminating the homestead credit isn’t the only option being considered. The remaining funds could come from increasing the public safety tax, which is currently at 0.35 percent but can max out at 0.50 percent. If raised to the maximum, that tax could bring in $15 million for IMPD, though Barth said he hopes the increase wouldn’t be that drastic.
Another option would be to apply for a federal grant that helps fund community-oriented policing services, which could fund another 10 new officers every year for the next three years.
Also under consideration is whether IMPD should start charging vendors for policing services for special events.
Public Safety director Troy Riggs said that move isn’t uncommon.
“I think that cities are realizing when you have these events,” he said, “you’re depleting some of the resources on the streets that you have to back fill, and sometimes that’s done by having to pay overtime.”
Whether that should be considered in Indianapolis, Riggs said, is a matter for elected officials.
IMPD has a budget of more than $191 million — $106 million of which is spent on salaries for sworn officers. Adding 100 new recruits would add about $7.5 million per year to the budget.
The commission doesn’t officially endorse any of the suggestions for additional revenue, said Valerie Washington, the city’s assistant director of public safety who helped put together the staffing commission’s report. Ultimately, the decision will be left up to the City-County Council.
The commission is expected to meet again April 28, when it will finalize the recommendations.
Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis.