Transforming Policing
We Keep Us Safe
Indianapolis police have a reputation for racism and brutality. Police killings of young Black men received publicity in 2017 and 2020, and each death drove community members into the streets, demanding justice and calling for police reform. But it wasn’t until the national uprising over the murder of George Floyd that there was sufficient momentum to turn proposals into policy.
Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Faith in Indiana was poised to step into the moment. Indianapolis was already tense. Two weeks before George Floyd was killed, two young Black men, McHale Rose and Dreasjon Reed, had been murdered by police in two separate incidents. Floyd’s death unleashed pent-up anger and grief. Young people filled the streets. An anxious mayor announced a 9 pm curfew, then ordered the police to use teargas against peaceful protesters. White nationalist provocateurs vandalized property and added to the mayhem. Police arrested more than a hundred Black protesters.
As the anger was ramping up, organizer Rosie Bryant met with church leaders and planned a Processional for Racial Justice for Sunday afternoon, May 31. About 1,500 people turned out for the march, which was led by thirty prominent Black clergy. On the steps of city hall, they called on the mayor to take action, while 1,100 people sent emails. “We created a container for the faith community, so that people who wouldn’t come out in the evening could express themselves,” said Shoshanna Spector, executive director of Faith in Indiana. With his city in flames and tear gas in the air, the mayor was quick to respond.
The first step was creating a use-of-force policy for the police. Faith in Indiana’s leaders revised a policy enacted in Camden NJ and negotiated with the mayor, police chief, city’s legal team, and their own grassroots colleagues. After several rounds of revisions, the police adopted a policy that required de-escalation in moments of crisis.
Democratizing the police
Faith in Indiana’s Black leadership knew this change wasn’t sufficient. Police in Indianapolis were a law unto themselves, with no civilian oversight. Under Jim Crow-era policies, law enforcement in Indianapolis was excluded from the government guidance required of all other municipal agencies. Policy for Indianapolis law enforcement was set by a three-member panel, the General Orders Board (or GO Board), all of whom were appointed by the police. In the words of Bishop Clyde Posely, one of Faith in Indiana’s clergy leaders, policy-making at the Indianapolis Police Department had been “conducted by three of the police brass, in secret, for over a hundred years. These procedures gave officers the cloak, opportunity, and instruction to conduct business that was deadly for Black people.”
With encouragement from the mayor, Faith in Indiana set out to democratize the GO board.
The organization used an inside-outside strategy. As insiders, they went to the city council and learned that a city ordinance––passed by the council, signed by the mayor––was sufficient to revise the board’s structure. Two sympathetic city councilors seized on the opportunity and proposed legislation adding civilians to the powerful Board, and Faith in Indiana’s grassroots leaders held dozens of meetings to win support from the city’s other officials.
As outsiders, leaders generated more than 5,000 emails to city councilors urging them to add democratic accountability to law enforcement. “As modern-day prophets,” said Rev. Dr. Carlos Perkins, Pastor of Bethel AME Church, “we stand on the shoulders of the Old Testament prophet Amos, who declared –– ‘Let Justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever- flowing stream.’ We are our ancestors’ dream…fighting for our liberation.”
Finally, change came to the Indianapolis Police Department. On October 12, 2020, the city council voted to add four community members to the Board, making it a seven-member panel, with community members in the majority. With this decision, Indianapolis became the city with the nation’s strongest civilian oversight over law enforcement.