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Troy Riggs, the newly named IMPD chief.
Ryan Delaney/WFYIINDIANAPOLIS -- This city's new police chief says the past six months have been “extremely violent” as he prepares to put on the IMPD badge.
A day after being named Mayor-elect Joe Hogsett’s new chief of police, Troy Riggs gave an update on the holistic, neighborhood-targeting crime fighting strategy he piloted when he was the city’s public safety director.
It's likely one of his last acts as a policy researcher at IUPUI -- the job he left city government for fewer than six months ago.
Some of the numbers are alarming. Ninety-five of the city’s 137 homicides this year happened in the last six months. And non-fatal shootings in the six focus areas are up 50 percent.
Riggs, who will become police chief in January, says he’ll face "extreme challenges."
'We have to work together as a community to address these and make sure that we start enhancing quality of life in these areas, instead of that degradation of quality of life spreading to other areas," Riggs said after the presentation.
One-sixth of teenagers in Indianapolis report carrying either a gun or knife with them regularly. Homicide is now this city’s leading cause of death for 18 to 24 year olds.
Contact Ryan: 317.489.4491 | rdelaney@wfyi.org | @rpatrickdelaney
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