Loading ...YOU CALL THIS AN ARGUMENT?
Tonight is the City-County Council’s Public Safety Committee’s hearing on an ordinance that will transfer control of the Metropolitan Police Department from Sheriff Frank Anderson to Mayor Greg Ballard. Opponents plan to show up and make the following four arguments.
It lowers accountability in public safety by having two appointed officials in charge as opposed to one elected official. It takes public input out of public safety because we as the Indianapolis community will no longer vote on who is responsible for IMPD. It will cost money to move IMPD to the Mayor’s office, which could be spent on actually enhancing public safety. We already voted on who should run IMPD in the Sheriff’s last election. Crime decreased significantly once the Sheriff had control of IMPD.
Let’s walk through these.
1. It lowers accountability in public safety by having two appointed officials in charge as opposed to one elected official. There will be one person in charge of the Police Department, The Mayor.
2. It takes public input out of public safety because we as the Indianapolis community will no longer vote on who is responsible for IMPD. Yes the public will be able to vote on who is responsible for IMPD, he’s called the Mayor.
3. It will cost money to move IMPD to the Mayor’s office, which could be spent on actually enhancing public safety. Any transition costs will be nominal. Actually the taxpayers will save money because that’s less hours Kevin Murray, the Sheriff’s attorney, will get to bill.
4. We already voted on who should run IMPD in the Sheriff’s last election. IMPD didn’t even exist when Frank was re-elected.
5. Crime decreased significantly once the Sheriff had control of IMPD. Whatever! Actually crime has gone up since Frank was elected Sheriff, Don’t believe me, click here.
The sad thing is that there are some philosophical arguments you can debate for the Sheriff to be in charge of law enforcement, however if this is the best that the people who want to keep Frank in power can make, I feel for them.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:01 am
Exactly Abdul!! Obviously the only reason cares is because of the money. Before Mayor Ballard came into office and the reality of Anderson losing control hit him we never heard a peep out of him. Where was his voice and concern when the crime rate was getting out of control? The answer? Nowhere, as long as he had his cush job with threat of losing it.
REMEMBER NOVEMBER ‘07
January 31st, 2008 at 10:04 am
I am going to save this so i can cut and paste whenever the issue of crime comes up.
Even in Bart Peterson’s and Frank Anderson’s worst years, crime was STILL lower than it was under their predecessors. Period. If you don’t believe ME, check the numbers.
Humbly yours, I am a Proud Indy Resident.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:51 am
I just want to point out that the County Sheriff is a Constitutionally created office so regardless of who ends up with control, we will still have a Marion County Sheriff, unless there is a constitutional amendment. Ind. Const. Art. VI, Section 2. Additionally, I am pretty sure that the sheriff is enabled by state statute to run the county jail, hold foreclosure sales, and collect unpaid taxes. So we are really just talking about IMPD, because regardless we will still have a sheriff with governmental responsibilities.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Let’s revisit these one by one:
1. “There will be one person in charge of the Police Department, The Mayor.” - There is already one elected official in charge of IMPD, so why change it?
2. “Yes the public will be able to vote on who is responsible for IMPD, he’s called the Mayor.” - The public already gets to vote on who is in charge of IMPD, he’s called the Sheriff, so why change it?
3. “Any transition costs will be nominal. Actually the taxpayers will save money because that’s less hours Kevin Murray, the Sheriff’s attorney, will get to bill.” - Somebody who complains about what school systems do with their vending machine money is calling taxpayer expenses nominal? Also, if Mr. Murray doesn’t do the work, who will? It has to be done by somebody.
4. “IMPD didn’t even exist when Frank was re-elected.” - Technically you’re right, it didn’t exist. But the transition was well under way, and it was highly publicized that whomever won the election in Nov. of 2006, would preside over the newly formed IMPD.
5. “Whatever! Actually crime has gone up since Frank was elected Sheriff, Don’t believe me, click here.” - I guess you can make any argument when you only look at data that proves your point, while excluding everything else.
And another point that they are forgetting:
Why would we want to move IMPD out from under someone who has law enforcement experience and place under the control of someone who has none?
January 31st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Dear Proud Indy Resident: get over it. Bart is gone and we all know the reason why.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
BrosephII. If you actually believe what you have written, well, what can one say. Sorry for you. Listen to the officers under an Anderson led organization. They think it is a joke.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
It’s breaking now. The Mayor and the Sheriff have come to some sort of agreement where the Mayor gets pretty much what he wants without Sheriff Anderson fighting it anymore.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Kevin Murray was paid $700,000 in 2007. That compares with an average of around $10,000/year for previous legal advisors.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
$700,00000 while prvious advisors averaged $10,000?!!!!
If this is true, someone needs to request all the invoices and audit them. I’m sure he was doing non-Sheriffin’ legal work or had 2, 3 or 4 contracts/positions that probably conflict. You never know, he may have even billed to defend and oppose, Aaron Haith style. No one been eyeing the sherrif’s billing. We need to take a CLOSER look.
We also need to see who is feeding the prisoners. Anderson gave that contract to the now-bankrupt Payton Wells, the car dealer. I wonder who has it now, a shoe saleman?
I smell a rat!!!!!!!!!!!
If Murray was paid that much, and it’s not proper, we need to get this money back, the police department could buy quite a few new units with that money.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
No one ever bothers to check the sheriff’s budget. They always concentrate on the city’s budget.
The sheriff has many employees that retired for $70-80,000 a year pension, then hires them right back as “civilian” ranking officers at $90,000 a year.
Then there are people like Sonny Wyatt who I understand just retired from IMPD and immediately went to work for the sheriff and has a brand new shiny Ford Crown Vic. Wonder what job they invented for him?
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
OK. I am missing something. I thought consolidation (in particular police consolidation) was supposed to streamline government and save us money. Doesn’t this look like de-consolidation? I mean, even state officials want consolidation (see barties Indyworks). Either give the Command all of it, the entire operation to the sheriff and then eliminate the public safety position and his assistants. Or, give the entire Command to the Mayor and eliminate the sheriff position and his assistants. But in the end, I need to ask, will the current mayor (and current public safety director), with NO law enforcement background of any kind, be a better leaders in the fight against crime. Was the last mayor and last public safety director that effective? Or was Goldsmith and Dr. Alan Handt that effective?
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Sonny Wyatt retired? Who will be assigned the duty of informing the peashake, illegal gambling”, house owners of the impending raids several hours before they happen?