Beginning next week, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) will host a series of community listening sessions aimed at gathering feedback on a draft policy for body worn cameras. The listening sessions were first announced by Mayor Joe Hogsett and Chief Bryan Roach on February 4, when they laid out the community-and stakeholder-driven feasibility study that will seek input from both residents and rank-and-file officers in addition to a technology pilot period.
The feasibility study of body worn cameras will include an extensive community engagement process that kicks off with the community listening sessions and also includes a secure, web-based survey sponsored, created, and maintained by the IUPUI School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). Residents can access the survey here, which will be used to garner the community’s opinions on body-worn cameras, the technology used during the study period, and other related factors. At a later date a second round of community listening sessions will be announced to allow IUPUI SPEA to share survey results directly with community members.
The study will also include a pilot of body worn camera technology. Several vendor technologies will be tested by the officers who serve in the busies shift on the largest districts – all beat officers and supervisors on North, East, and Southeast District middle shift. This is a second, larger pilot of body worn camera technology in Indianapolis, but the first time the community will take part in the assessment.
Residents can access the survey here: Survey
A community listening session will be held in each IMPD district during the first half of March. The schedule can be found below:
Southeast District March 4 at 6:00 pm Southeast Community Services 901 Shelby
Downtown District March 5 at 5:30 pm City Way YMCA 430 S. Alabama
Northwest District March 7 at 6:00 pm International Market Coalition 3685 Commercial
Southwest District March 11 at 6:00 pm Friendship Missionary Baptist Church 1301 Goodlet
North District March 12 at 7:00 pm Zion Hope Baptist Church 5950 E 46th
East District March 14 at 6:00 pm Eastern Star Baptist Church, J229 – 2nd Floor of Jewel Conference Center, use north entrance 5750 E 30th