IMPD Partners With Federal Agency To Craft Three-Year Plan To Address Gun Violence

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is focused on reducing gun violence, as the city is on pace to set a new record for criminal homicides this year. And it's partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice to come up with a strategic plan.

The city says federal officials spent two days meeting with local agencies this week.

IMPD Lt. Matt Thomas says the plan is still in development, but an emerging priority is what they call “precision policing,” where police track down individuals who are consistently causing violence.

“That requires good crime analysis," Thomas says. "And so that was one of the focuses of our conversation, how do we better identify people within the community?"

Thomas says technology like NIBIN is a major component of this effort. NIBIN is a shell casing forensics tool that helps police find people connected to different crimes, and IMPD boosted resources this year to use it more effectively.

The federal partnership is the result of IMPD's participation in a program called the National Public Safety Partnership.

Thomas says once the strategic plan is finished and presented to IMPD, it will be implemented for three years.