Doctor Director Straub Caught Sprucing Up Homicide Rate

The inspiration for "Bart" to start the Bart Lies! website was that every year, near the end of the year, it seemed like the homicide rate would get manipulated and would be reported lower by a few homicides lower than the actual homicide rate. Usually, media figures or some politicians would reduce the numbers by taking out any police-action homicides or self-defense figures. In other words, they use the murder rate. Which is fine, as long as they report it as such, and it usually only reduces the number of homicides by 0-5.

I noted last year that Prosecutor Carl Brizzi identified the number as the "homicide" rate and used a number that matches the number found at Bart Lies!.

But Doctor Director Frank Straub, the director of the Department of Public Safety, threw quite a curve ball my way when Bart pointed out that he said there have only been 89 homicides committed in Indianapolis this year. That's right, 89. And yes, he said "homicide", not "violent homicide" or "criminal homicide" or "murder". You can listen to the audio here.

Now, even if you don't accept Bart's count of 106, maybe you'll accept The Indianapolis Star's count of 102.

I'm still scratching my head on how you arrive at that number.

Several months back, The Star published an article where certain public officials were hoping that they'd get another year of less-than-100 criminal homicides. They list the number of non-criminal homicides at 8.

If you take the 102 number, and subtract 8, we're down to 94. Take away the two police action shootings, we're down to 92. Even if you take Eric Wells, who died after an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer ran into his motorcycle with his K-9 police vehicle, off the list, it only brings the number down to 91.

So how did Doctor Director Straub arrive at this number?

I'd sure like to know.

Straub's nomination is up for a vote in the Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee in the City-County Council on Wednesday at 5:30pm.

Afternoon Suicide Downtown

I was having a late lunch at Jimmy John's at Meridian and Washington around 3pm when I noticed all the Jimmy John's employees started leaving. The first part of an IMPD squad was arriving due to reports of gun shots from the Dennison parking garage on South Meridian. Before the dozens of additional law enforcement and media swarmed onto the area, there was a clear line of sight from the corner I stood at and where the body of the murder victim was. I later learned that the victim fell from one of the parking garage floors and landed on the sidewalk, almost hitting a pedestrian.

I first started getting reports via Twitter and word-of-mouth that the shooter killed himself, but I could still see a law enforcement officer with a firearm pointed to the parking garage. I later saw a LEO run into the garage. It was only about 20 minutes later that a Fox 59 reporter confirmed that the shooter shot himself.

As for the number of shots, the firearm used by the shooter, and other details, they are all under investigation. Reports from Twitter and from people I talked to at the scene all revealed different details. Hopefully the evening news casts will have a more full picture.

UPDATE: WIBC has a pretty good summary of what happened, including confirmation of the use of two handguns by the shooter.

UPDATE II: Wish-TV is reporting that it is a suicide and that there was no homicide at the scene. The man fired random shots then jumped. Earlier in the week, someone else committed suicide in a very public manner as well.

What's interesting is that there is a body in Hendricks County that police say is connected to the suicide that happened in downtown Indianapolis today.

Homicide Rate Predictions and Talk

The website Bart Lies! is still around years after Mayor Bart Peterson became, well, former Mayor Bart Peterson. It mainly focuses on keeping track of the homicide rate. Under his alias, Bart, he writes in the "About" section:

The main project for Bart Lies! these days is monitoring the homicides occurring within the boundaries of Marion County. You see, that was one of the lies, that the homicides had been reduced by the Peterson administration. As it turns out, the tally reported by local media seemed to forget about a homicide here and there, at times giveing the number 4-5 fewer than it actually was. We don’t know where they got the number but by recording and posting each one here as they occur, it’s impossible to forget about them anymore.

I've only been following local blogs for about a year. So it came as a surprise to me to here Bart's numbers actually being the same numbers used by city-county authorities. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, as I pointed out in the comments section of this post, used the homicide rate himself on his WIBC program Crime Beat. Public Safety Director Frank Staub did so as well, more recently.

What's been disturbing is a recent trend of many of the homicides being committed by convicted felons with quite a record, but were somehow released early. Victor A. Williams, who has been charged with homicide #7 in Marion County this year, had this in his prior record:

• POSS. OF HD GUN W/O LICENSE
• ROBBERY (ARMED)
• HANDGUN VIOLATION
• ROBBERY (ARMED)
• BURGLARY
• DEALING IN COCAINE OR NARCOTIC DRUG

Another repeat felon committed a homicide more recently with a record that includes forgery and robbery.

And to end on a happy note, Bart posted a graph on where he believes the homicide rate will end for this year with comparisons to past years.

We, as citizens, need to have a serious conversation with our law enforcement, legislators, and judiciary, about the early release of felons with multiple convictions. That is something we can do to reduce the bloodshed in this town.

Relevant links: Indiana Offender Database

IMPD Helicopters: Where Did the Money Go?

From Fox 59 News:

INDIANAPOLIS - In 2009 they cost 1.2 million to operate. Some police tell Fox59 they're angry at the cuts saying the copters are an important tool in the police toolbox to fight crime. They say Mayor Ballard campaigned policing and community safety was his number one priority.

"Yes, it concerns me a lot how are they going to catch the criminal if they don't have helicopters," said Brenda Kent, an eastside resident.

"He's actually not living up to what he said," said Janice Hall, an eastside resident. "Sometimes (politicians) say what they have to say, just to get elected."

The helicopters were reportedly used to track convicted murderer Brian Reese who shot officer Jason Fishburn and hunt for the two killers in the Hamilton Avenue Murders.

"They should find the money for it. They shouldn't cut it," said Hall.

Mayor Ballard would not comment directly on the apparent cuts saying he has never wavered in his commitment to public safety and the citizens of Indianapolis.

Public Safety director Frank Straub said the helicopters are extremely expensive to operate and there must be clarity about their effectives.

State police maintain four helicopters at an annual operating cost of about 1.4 million dollars.

Other Midwest cities have helicopters including Columbus that has six, Louisville that has one, Chicago has two.

There's a few interesting tidbits in this story, as well as a theory that I have about where this money went.

First, it's important to remember that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is one of the few that walked out as winners of the 2010 city-county budget. Their funds actually increased. So the premise that budget cuts are hurting them are ridiculous. $1.2 million magically vanished. It's much more likely that it was shuffled elsewhere.

Mayor Greg Ballard, when introducing the budget to the City-County Council way back in 2009, said that a federal grant would cover hiring and training new officers. A separate grant the city applied for, but did not know if they got at the time the budget was approved, would cover the cars. It was later discovered that IMPD didn't have a ghost of a chance at the $1.7 million grant, as seen in this previous post.

The city has also stepped up their efforts on collecting parking citations, as documented by WISH-TV. In a box to the left side of the story, it notes that the city would like to use $1.3 million to purchase 20 new cop cars.

My theory is the city is combining the money marked for the IMPD helicopters and money collected from the parking citations into a pool to pay for the new IMPD vehicles. It makes sense, since parking citation money goes into the general fund after T-2, the company that manages the Parking "Court", takes their cut.

But the best part of the story is the State Police operate twice as many helicopters for less money, $1.2 million instead of $1.4. I'd sure like to know why that is.

One of the comments on another blog said this could be an ideal situation for IMPD and State Police to pool their resources for this very expensive equipment. I'd rather that happen than have two helicopters just sit and collect dust, especially in light of the fairly high homicide rate we had in January.

Preview Post

I've got several stories somewhere between "think of something to write about" and "write the damn thing already." My professional obligations are winding down, and my academic work seems to be getting into a flow that is somewhat manageable, so more time for blogging. Here's a summary of what will be posted really, really soon:

• My interview with former Mayor of Indianapolis, Bill Hudnut, will be posted soon. The cassette tape is sitting on my desk and I just got to sit down and learn how to transfer the audio from the cassette to my computer. I'm still debating on to if I should just post the raw audio, or post the raw audio and write an article as well.
• On that note, Mayor Hudnut will be speaking to the Marion County Republican Party. You can read about his appearance, as well as how to attend, here.
• I've filed a public records request with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. The white signs that restrict parking due to an "EMERGENCY ORDER" site a specific code in the lower right hand corner. I'll be posting pictures, and type up my original letter and what I received from City Legal late last week. You can read the sample letter that I used to base mine on over here. And for additional "fun", you can read the relevant Indiana Code over here.
• I'm also trying to get down to the General Assembly to track legislation that I'm interested in, but I'm having the worst luck in getting down there in between my professional and academic obligations. It only happens at the beginning of the year, so I really want to start covering it as soon as possible. Senate Joint Resolution 7 (Marriage Amendment to the IN Constitution) passed in the Senate but is DOA in the House, and Senate Bill 192 (Domestic Partnerships and their rights) seems to be getting no traction in either legislative body.
• I've also been "re-tweeting" or linking to several articles worth reading about the NFL and/or Superbowl. So go check out my Twitter page
  

And in news from other blogs:

• The Indiana Law Blog reports that there is no Roll Call log on the votes for Senate Joint Resolution 7. The roll call is listed as Roll Call 67, but Roll Call 67 is not even in the log of all the Roll Calls.
• Advance Indiana, IPOPA, and Ogden On Politics are all reporting on the 26 (of 29) City-Council reps who took the Colts up on the offer of purchasing two tickets to the Superbowl at $800 per ticket. At the time of this posting, Christine Scales (R) and Ed Coleman (L) have come out as two of the three council reps who did NOT purchase the tickets. As I speculated over at iPOPA, I believe Doris Minton-McNeil is the third since she is inactive at the council due to recovering from an illness. Paul Ogden also brings up that most of the council reps are of a fairly modest background and even being able to afford $1,600 for the tickets, it'd be a challenge to afford the associated travel costs. He's speculating that they are being sold to brokers. I'd also speculate they might be buying them on behalf of friends or family who can afford them.
• The homicide rate jumped quite a bit in the last few days of January. Bart Lies has the number at 14. Let's pray for better (or in this case, slightly less worse) news in the future.
• Finally, Abdul Hakim-Shabazz over at Indiana Barrister and Pat Andrews at Had Enough Indy? have been doing bang-up coverage of Indianapolis Public Schools and Decatur Township Schools respectively.
  

Let's do this more often!

UPDATE: Advance Indiana and iPOPA are now reporting all three council members who turned down the Colts. They are Edward Coleman (L-At Large), Christine Scales (R-4th) and Angela Mansfield (D-2nd). Angela Mansfield also said that all council members who purchased tickets had to sign an agreement saying they wouldn't re-sell the tickets at more than face value. Ms. Mansfield also said that it was disrespectful to assume the worst of intentions of council members. But to that, I ask Ms. Mansfield to look around at her company, who all too often skirt around ethical issues about lobbying and conflicts of interest.

Ms. Mansfield is an honorable representative of the people. She was the lone Democrat who showed up at a committee meeting on the Capital Improvement Board bailout and voted against it, and did the same during the full council vote. Other council members would be wise to learn a few lessons from her.