Murder, He Wrote
I’m doing some research on the city’s homicides. Right now Indianapolis is at 12, which is about one murder every six days. How does this compare to previous years at this time. Check this out…
- 2009 – 12 homicides; one murder every 6.5 days.
- 2008 – 20 homicides; one murder every 3.9 days.
- 2007 – 23 homicides; one murder every 3.3 days.
- 2006 – 23 homicides; one murder every 3.3 days.
Either the economy is that bad and people don’t have time to commit murder because they’re looking for work or something else is going on. Once I get it figured out, I’ll let you know.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Maybe, all the troops are being called back to the front lines of the Mexican Cartel War?
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It can’t be anything the police are doing differently.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:56 am
It CAN be something the IMPD is doing differently: a combined department meshes detectives and efforts, for one thing. They said they were working together before, but anyone close to the situation knows there was a ton of turf protection. Too often, when you break one murder case, sadly, you break several. But when you jail one suspected murderer, you keep him off the streets for a definitive period of time.
Patrols are certianly more visible in my neighborhood in the last year. More break-ins than ever, but fewer shootings.
An LEO friend told me last week, that the snowstorm in Feb. helped a lot, too. For one week, the city was basically shut down. Crime-wise, too.
Maybe we can root for snow?
March 9th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Murder is a tricksy crime for police.
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For crimes of passion, there is very little police can do to forestall it. Deterrence is meaningless.
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For drug related murders, it takes more than just reactionary investigations by homicide detectives. It would take the combined efforts of several divisions across the entire metro area (including the donut counties, at a minimum). This is difficult to accomplish under the best of circumstances.
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It is my impression that the police are not currently up to this challenge. Certainly, my impression could be wrong, but I just don’t see any public indications to the contrary.
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Unless the police change their paradigm about what their mission should be, I will likely continue to view them as nothing more than another group of tax collectors, instead of as public safety employees.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Wow, Varan. I had no idea you were that tuned-in to IMPD.
Kind of a negative review, dontcha think?
I think IMPD is up to the job, if they have the right leadership. Leaders who can root out bad cops and boot them–today. ANd Leaders who aren’t afraid to tell the mayor and PubSafety Director: “We’re here to work, not posture.”
And–lastly–Leaders who will wear a path in the carpet taking cases to the prosecutor. And who will call foul–loudly–when the prosecutor balks.
I don’t have a Leader in mind, but I’ll know it when I see it, and it’s not anyone on N. Alabama St. currently.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:43 am
I think this will even it self back out (unfortunately) as people continue to commit petty crimes (their words, not mine) as far as stealing to have money. It will come back around…..
March 9th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Thanks for posting this Abdul. I knew we were doing better so far this year but didn’t know what the exact numbers.
March 9th, 2009 at 9:27 am
It’s pretty simple and people refuse to acknowledge the truth. Murders spiked in 2006 due to riff-raff and vermin that fled hurricane Katrina. I won’t bother to explain but anyone interested should google keywords Katrina, Houston, Crime, Increase and read some of the articles of what Houston and other cities had to deal with after Katrina. Indianapolis received its share of vermin but not on the level of cities like Houston. Another reason murders are down is the “crack wars” that seem to spike from time to time are winding down. But I strongly believe the increases were due to the scum that fled to Indy bringing with them their violent and criminal ways.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:33 am
I was at a CLE on Saturday about homicides investigations. A sociolgist got up there and pointed to economi circumstances as the reason for most homicides iin the United States, the teribble disparity between poor and rich, she said.. The problem is that when you looked at the homicide rate over the years, there appeared to be an inverse relationship between the economy and homicide. In other words, when the economy tanked, homicides became less frequent.
The subsequent speakers, who were policemen and investigators, etc. all agreed that there was an inverse relationship between the economy and homicide.
The sociologist’s claim that homicide rises in response to ecnomic conditions was not at all supported by any statistical information. It was just a PC explanation for crime, along with the prevalence of guns in American society.
Is it too much to ask that professors employ some objectivity in testing theories and then reject those not supported by the evidence? Okay, I know that is crazy talk.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:59 am
TA, let me begin by saying that I agree completely with you about the lack of leadership in the city’s public safety arena. I was extremely disappointed by Mayor Ballard’s selections for Director of Public Safety and Police Chief. And, a year hasn’t changed my opinion one little bit.
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That said, if anyone isn’t clear about my position, then yes, currently I have an almost completely negative perception of the IMPD (as an organization). In my opinion, deservedly so.
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I’m not tuned into anything. I am just an average citizen without any special insider knowledge or political connections. Still, for issues that interest me, I watch and develop opinions based upon observation. Could I be wrong? Sure. I don’t have a complete picture, and must form my opinions upon incomplete data. Plenty of room for error there. Yet…
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There are plenty of IMPD officers out there who are fighting the fight correctly, but they don’t often get the recognition they deserve. What gets recognition are oficers who aren’t doing the right thing (allegedly), or officers who spend inordinate amounts of time making money for the courts and their own training activities, instead of being on the lookout for real criminal behavior. I see somewhere near 5% of the active force sitting for hours in traffic court on certain days, when they should be out on the streets instead. I see second jobs becoming a distracting concern for officers/commanders who should know better. I see officers not paying the least bit of attention to some of the laws they seem most interested in enforcing (upon others).
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If IMPD wants to project a different image, then somebody needs to get off their duff and start doing it. I don’t think citizens are going to ever feel safe, if they perceive the police as an adversarial organization which seems to feel justified in feeding themselves off of a law abiding citizenry (see Lawrence’s latest plans for “safety on the streets”). I don’t create the perception of the IMPD, and it is in their power to change incorrect perceptions. So far, they have failed to do so, in my opinion.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
This exceeds the current rate of death of American soldiers serving in Iraq.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
“A sociolgist got up there and pointed to economi circumstances as the reason for most homicides iin the United States, the teribble disparity between poor and rich, she said.
It was just a PC explanation for crime, along with the prevalence of guns in American society.”
Her fix was likely:
#1: More wealth redistribution
#2: Take guns away from law abiding citizens
The problem is that this country doesn’t have poor people. We have Section 8 available to anyone, all we ask is you follow some basic rules. Drive by the various Section 8 properties. See how the residents, most of whom don’t work or work very few hours, just sit around and do nothing about the neighborhood. There is no pride, only anger that someone else has “more.” This is why we have crime. Some poor folks can’t be content with a roof over their head, paid for by others, food on the table, paid for by others, childcare, paid for by others, and free schooling, paid for by others.
Instead, they just demand all the above bailouts, which they call rights, and say they should be given even more.
I am sick of “being poor” being an excuse for unsafe sex, criminal activity, etc.. With most of these people, it is all about themselves, and then when they get into trouble, they cry about how it is so unfair they are poor.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I don’t care what the reasons are, just glad it is down.
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What are stats like for burglary and assaults? Is that crime down or up this year?
March 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
What ever the reason/rationale for all the murders and other crimes involving harassment, car jacking, etc. etc.—-the high incidence is reason enough for small town folk like me to avoid Indy as much as possible. When any degree of comfort comes from the reduction in murder and other crimes against people–still a long way away from my comfort zone. Suspect the “cause” of a lot of the “stuff” can be found the same as in my small town–drugs (use, seeking money to buy, failure to pay, and turf).
March 9th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Day light savings just kicked in watch for a spike again this summer.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:30 am
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“I don’t think citizens are going to ever feel safe,” — varangianguard, post 9
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I like your post, varangianguard. You hit the nail on the head…
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Alas, there is a HUGE difference between ‘feeling safe’ and actually ‘being safe’.
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Citizens are ultimately responsible for their own safety. Our wonderful lawyers in robes have ruled time and again that police have NO DUTY TO PROTECT YOU.
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Want your neighborhood back? Institute a crime watch with armed patrols. By armed, I mean visibly armed.
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A group of 5 or so well armed men with rifles and shotguns walking the streets would certainly be a deterrent to crime.
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You do NOT need ‘permission’ via permit or license to carry a rifle or shotgun out in public.
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Stake a claim to your rights as a Citizen of Indiana, and take back your streets.
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If government were really serious about the ‘war on (some) drugs, war on crime, war on this and that, then government would ‘promote’ this.
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I believe that anyone or any group of people deciding to do this MUST be trained. They must ber trained in the use of their personal weapon to prevent ‘negligent discharges’.
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They should wear distinctive clothing to identify themselves, not only to their neighbors, but to criminals and police.
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Government police do NOT have a duty to protect YOU. You may ‘feel’ safe, and all warm n fuzzy. But are you ‘really’ safe. There IS a difference.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Dawg mentioned the “Katrina Effect” and that was definitely a factor. Houston’s crime skyrocketed after taking in many thousands of evacuees from New Orleans.
New Orleans was often omitted from murder and other crime stats (generally putting D.C. at the top of some lists) because many of those reports only include cities of 500,000 or more and New Orleans was slightly less than that. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=8894
March 13th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Abbie,
Look at the research regarding murder. Murder is cyclical at best. An ebb and flow. Predicting who is going to be the next perp or victim is in most cases, guesswork. Sadly, murder/homicides are but a small fraction of the overall crime in Indy. Look at the overall crime and or (at the least) aggravated assault rate. Strange part is that overall crime increased (slightly) in 2008 compared to 2007. And the police made more arrests in 2008 than 2007. Now that is something to blog about.