“We are obviously down some people.” That understatement of the year comes from Jerry McCory, the head of the Marion County Justice Agency about the number of vacant positions in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. The city is downplaying the fact there are approximately 130 street patrol vacancies at IMPD.

In this morning’s Indianapolis Star, McCory says there 50 new officers in field training and currently teaching another 52 recruits who , assuming they all complete their training and no one drops out, will be on the department by the end of 2008. Well let’s do a little simple math here, assuming nothing changes between now and 2008, the city will add 102 officers. The last time I checked, 130-102 = 28, so the department would be down 28 officers and add the fact another 80 or so officers will retire this year, the city will be down a total of 108 officers, and doesn’t take into account any other future retirements. So no matter how you slice it, this city is still short in a crucial area of public safety.

I don’t know who’s doing the math down at city hall, but it’s starting make me wonder that if we can’t get numbers like this straight, what about the millions in savings that were promised from consolidation?

I’ve just finished taking another critical look at the information concerning vacancies in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and it continues to raise more questions. For example, with IMPD averaging about 130 street patrol officer vacancies, it makes one wonder about the appropriations for those positions. Logic dictates the vacancies would not be listed if there was no money to fill them. And assuming an average salary and pension of $110,000 per officer, this translates into more than $6 million in the bank. And I have to ask if those vacancies are being used to underwrite some of the savings consolidation was supposed to bring to the city?

Secondly, because IMPD is short-staffed on patrol officers the officer-supervisor ratio is extraordinarily high. There are 354 sergeants and lieutenants, as opposed to 1109 patrol officers. That makes the officer-supervisor ratio 1:3. Best practices in IMPD training manuals are considered to be 1:6. So not only is IMPD short on patrol officers, but it is very top heavy with management.

Third, and perhaps just a disturbing, are the vacancies in the civilian support staff. According to the report there are nearly 60 civilian openings, with more than a third in the transcription and processing sections, which are necessary to move reports forward so cases can be solved.

I left a request late last week with IMPD to get an answer to these questions, but to date no one has gotten back with me. IMPD officials are more than welcome to respond and I will give them the airtime on my radio program or space on this blog to do it.

And for the record, I am not reporting this information to make the city or IMPD look bad or for the glorification of my already oversized, massive ego. I am reporting this information because this city has serious issues and we cannot fight crime effectively unless we have the infrastructure and manpower to do it effectively.

Memorial Day is the “official” start of summer and for Marion County, it may also be the official start of the next crime wave. As the Mayor, Sheriff and other elected and appointed officials look for ways to deal with city’s crime problem, they may want to start within the ranks of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and do some more hiring. According to documents, accidentally sent out by e-mail, IMPD faces an officer shortage of crisis proportion.

Depending on how you count the bodies, IMPD currently has anywhere between 128 to 140 street patrol officer vacancies. As of May 20, IMPD has 1,248 allotted patrol officer positions, but only 1,109 are filled. IMPD has a total of 177 vacancies, 80 percent are street officers. Most of the vacancies are in the Department’s northwest district, which has 38 vacancies. The north district has 11 vacancies. Northeast district has 24 vacancies. There is one vacancy in the Downtown district. The southeast district has 19 vacancies. And the southwest district has 35 vacancies.

What makes this information so disturbing is that IMPD may loose up 80 experienced officers due to retirement later this year, but only about 60 new recruits will come through the current class. Add on the fact Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson has said in the past, he’s needed 250 more officers to effectively patrol Marion County. So to add this all up, a city facing its most dramatic increases in crime in recent memory is potentially short more than 400 officers.

Are you surprised that crime seems out of control? You shouldn’t be anymore.

As many of you know, yesterday was my birthday. I had a great day. Lots of calls, cigars, strippers, etc. I have a great life and am extremely grateful for everyone in it. I’m looking forward to the next 525,600 minutes.

You all know by now, Indianapolis lost the Super Bowl to north Texas. I’m not surprised. If I was an NFL owner, I would have probably made the same call: 30,000 more seats versus 30 degrees below zero. It’s pretty simple math. However, now comes the bigger issues.

1. The point of building the taxpayer-funded stadium and giving away $66 million in taxpayer dollars to build a hotel that was already going to be built, was to get a Super Bowl. Now that we’re not getting the Super Bowl, will the taxpayers get a refund?

2. This is the Mayor’s third major defeat this year, Indy Works, Charter Schools and now this. Is the Mayor weakened as he continues his bid for re-election?

3. Would the juice have been worth the squeeze? Indy Tax Dollars has an interesting list of what we would have had to give up in order to get the Super Bowl and the long-term economic impact would have been nill.

Just some questions as we do the post mortem. The biggest one though is now what?

I find myself raising some more serious questions about the United States’ involvment in Iraq. I have never doubted the American military’s resolve to get the job done, but I seriously question the Iraqis. Two recent news stories make me question how serious the Iraqis are.

First, their own parliament decides it wants to take a two-month vacation this summer. And in the past couple of weeks, it looks like a majority of the Iraqi parliament is backing a measure ordering American troops to withdraw. It really makes me question why do we even bother with these people? And if they’re so hell bent on killing each other, we may as well let them!

To be honest, for the longest time I really could have cared less whether Indianapolis got a Super Bowl. I don’t think Super Bowls really don’t do all that much for city’s long-term economy and image. When was the last time you went to Jacksonville or Detroit? But this morning, I did decide to care because I realized a Super Bowl would be good for Indianapolis, not for monetary reasons, but for crime reasons.

You all know I think crime is out of control in this town and our elected officials have failed to get a real handle on it. And I don’t appreciate threats of laying off police if the voters get behind tax increases. However, if the city gets a Super Bowl then that just might be what it really takes to tackle crime.

I think it’s safe to assume no one wants a tourist to be part of the record car-jackings that have been taking place, nor sexually assaulted in a parking garage across the street from city hall, or just simply accosted by the usual downtown, homeless panhandlers. So it just might take getting a Super Bowl here to really light the fire under the powers that be and make them pay more than lip service and shallow gestures to dealing with crime. Go Indy! Get a Super Bowl and the criminals off the street.

Gary Welsh at Advance Indiana is reporting this afternoon that the ACLU and State Democrats are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a 7th Circuit Court ruling that upheld Indiana’s Voter ID Law.

Talk about hyprocrisy. These guys have yet to produce one voter who was disenfranchised by Voter ID, meanwhile at least three dozen people have filed formal complaints with the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office that there were not allowed to vote because their polling place opened late or never opened at all. And the ACLU, NAACP, Urban League and Black estblishment are nowhere to be found.

These guys kill me.

The President and a bipartisan group of Senators have worked out a deal on immigration reform that would secure the border and eventually legalize the 12-million illegal immigrants in the United States. The plan would increase border security, crackdown on employers who hire illegals, set up a temporary guest worker program and eventually allow those here illegally to apply fore citizenship. The plan has been in the hopper for months as both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans worked out the details.

Critics are already calling this amnesty. Which it’s not because the definition of amnesty is to “forget or overlook any past offense.” The illegal immigrant would have to pay a fine of $5,000 before applying for residency and would have to wait eight years before applying for a green card. Amnesty would be a general forgiveness with no penalty. From what I’ve read, I like the plan. It’s not perfect but it addresses the realities involved with this complex issue.

And for critics, I have one simple question, “what’s your plan?”

I’m going to get a little conspiratorial this morning. When I look at Indy’s crime and homicide rate, it’s no big secret that most of the victims are poor and Black. I can’t help but wonder sometimes if there would be more community outrage if the homicide victims had a little more money and a little less melanin. Just thinking.