Loading ...HELLO NEWMAN
Indianapolis Mayor-elect Greg Ballard has named former Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman to be Director of Public Safety. Newman served as County Prosecutor from 1995-2003 and currently is President of Strand Labs which specializes in forensic testing.
Newman says his priorities are to put the Metropolitan Police Department back under the control of the Mayor, improve police morale and increase accountability.
During the afternoon news conference, Newman said he did not oppose the police merger of IPD and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, but thought it could have been implemented better.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Why does Indianapolis need a Director of Public Safety? Isn’t that just an unnecessary layer of government?
-Think about it! Let the Fire Chief report to the mayor and you can eliminate a $95k+ salary/benefits, car, administrative staff & office equipment that are all unnecessary.
December 29th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Why a DPS? Simple enough. Delegation. It is not the Mayor’s job to RUN public safety. It is his job to see that it gets run effectively.
December 29th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
So why an attorney? Why not someone that has a law enforcement background. Scott Newman is a good guy but he is not a cop! This is not a good move Mr. Ballard!
December 29th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Bart Lies: I still don’t see it. It may not be the mayor’s job to run public safety, but he has a fire chief to run the fire department…so why pay an executive salary, administrative salary, vehicle purchase & maintenance, office supply expense, & office machine expense for someone to have a title and run interference between the mayor & his fire chief?????
It appears this is an unnecessary layer of government & waste of our tax $$$.
December 29th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
A great move by Ballard. I’ve known Newman when he was prosecutor and have great respect for him. I’m not a LEO, but believe that he has their respect and will help bring the organization together following a poorly-managed merger. I believe that Indianapolis will be well-served by this appointment.
December 29th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
As Director of Public Safety, Newman’s role will be administrative, and therefore it makes good sense to have someone NOT beholden to either police organization. While Bob Turner was a good DPS, he was still IPD. Newman can and will bring about an outsiders view regarding admin of the new IMPD.
He was a good prosecutor, not perfect, but better than Modisett and some of the others we have had. He was also a good administrator. The public safety structure in Indy needs someone who is not currently tied into the existing system, and yet is familiar with the players. Scott fills that criteria.
As far was why we need a DPS, easy, someone has to be a filter to and from the mayor.
When Hudnut was mayor, the chief, Paul Annee was constantly on the receiving end of Hizzonor’s ire. Let the Chief of Police be the head cop in charge, and let Newman as Director of PS take the heat from the Mayor’s office.
December 30th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Whoever came-up with “Hello… Newman” as the title for this post: you have my vote for president. Brilliant.
December 30th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I’m with you Kramer. Giddy-up!
December 31st, 2007 at 11:20 am
While at the event on Saturday, we mentioned to Scott Newman that we passed the pea shake at 34th and Central and it was going strong.
December 31st, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Heck. All the pea shakes are going strong! Enough already.
December 31st, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Did Newman explain how he and Goldsmith shut down all the peashakes during their joint terms in office?
Didn’t think so!
December 31st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
NewsFlash!
Last minute entry for understater of the year, Mr. Scott Newman, for “could have been implemented better”.
Whoa! Stop those presses on that one.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Yeah, Peterson and Anderson did such a good job of SHUTTING DOWN the pea shakes.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Susan, Scott Newman wasmost definitely a law enforcement officer. Hell, he was the TOP LEO in Marion County. He was the final stop to say whether an arrest went before a court or not. He was the only one who could over rule an arrest made by the Sheriff himself. Know what you are talking about before you make ass-umptions.