Indianapolis Police Department

Early days

In September 1854, thirty-three years after the city of Indianapolis was founded, Mayor James McCready appointed 14 men to the first police force, under the command of Captain Jefferson Springsteen. Prior to 1854, peace in Indianapolis had been maintained by a town marshal, the sheriff and a few deputies, a volunteer night watch, and a small number of constables and justices of the peace.[3]

During the summer of 1855, as police officers attempted to enforce the recently enacted prohibition laws, they were met with resistance and a riot broke out on East Washington Street. When gunfire erupted from the police ranks, several citizens were wounded. Due in part to this incident and in part to the expense of maintaining the police force, the ordinance creating the police force was repealed on December 17, 1855.

Early the following year, a second force of ten men, under Captain Jesse Van Blaricum, was created. Under hostile political party action, this force was disbanded in May. May 1857 saw a change of party power, and another police force of seven men, under Captain A. mD. Rose, was created. after this rebirth, the Indianapolis Police Department was able to survive and grow.

A growing department

In 1862, officers began their first "day work". Up to this time, all police assignments had been conducted at night. Police districts were established by ordinance in March 1864, and by 1865 the department consisted of a chief, two lieutenants, nine day and eighteen night patrolmen, two detectives, and sixteen specials. By 1900, with the city's population nearly 170,000, the size of the force had increased to 166.

The department began to supplement its sworn strength with non-sworn employees during the 1950s, shifting sworn officers from administration to direct law enforcement and assigning non-sworn employees to the administrative posts. In the early 1990s, the department expanded the role of non-sworn employees with the creation of non-sworn, uniformed public safety officers who perform the functions of evidence collection, accident investigations, and prisoner transportation.

By 2006, approximately 1,200 sworn and 350 non-sworn personnel were employed by the department.

Housing the department

The exact location of the original police station is uncertain. Records suggest that an early station was situated at the southeast corner of 200 North Alabama Street. A high wall surrounded the building, which is said to have been almost hidden from the view of the passerby. In the 1870s the department moved to a new headquarters at 51 South Alabama Street, where it remained until the current City-County Building was built in 1961.

Maintaining its central headquarters in the East Wing of the City-County Building at 50 North Alabama, the department also made a commitment to decentralized, community-based policing. Consequently, during the mid-1980s and 1990s neighborhood district headquarters were established at several locations:

• North District, 4209 North College Avenue, opened July 14, 1989
• East District, 3120 East 30th Street, opened May 15, 1990
• South District, 1150 South Shelby Street, opened May 4, 1995
• West District, 551 North King Avenue, opened April 16, 1991
• Downtown District, 209 East St. Joseph Street, opened April 1995 (since relocated to 25 West 9th Street)

Mobilizing the department

The first IPD officers walked their beats, which at the time covered little territory. Some officers rode in buggies and others rode velocipedes. The bicycle was introduced as a means of transportation in 1897 and was used for "hot" runs. Officers assigned to the bicycle units were known as the "Flying Squadron". Horse patrols also were implemented around the turn of the century, and motorcycle patrols were employed from 1909.

The first police emergency automobile was pioneered in 1904. The new car was a "steamer", and it was essential that a pilot flame, which kept up sufficient steam to move the car, be kept burning constantly. In 1912, the department obtained two high-powered Packards that could get to the scene of problems quickly. By 1929, the department owned about sixty automobiles.

When needed, the department's first officers commandeered private wagons or conveyed drunks to the station in a wheelbarrow. In 1883, the department obtained two horse-drawn carts for use as wagons. In 1906, motorized trucks replaced the horse-drawn wagons.

In the face of general civil disorder connected with the Indianapolis Streetcar Strike of 1913, many officers refused to follow orders. This is sometimes called the Indianapolis Police Mutiny.

The 2006 fleet was equipped with more than 1400 cars, 45 motorcycles, and 12 prisoner wagons. In addition, formerly discontinued horse and bicycle patrols had been reinstituted in 1983 and 1991, respectively.

As with other big-city departments, detectives are not considered ranking officers, but rather officers assigned to specialized units, including violent crimes, robbery, gang and narcotics, etc.

Women on the department

On June 16, 1918, at a special meeting of the Board of Public Safety, thirteen policewomen and a woman police sergeant were appointed to the Indianapolis Police Department. Emma Christy Baker (1865–1955), the first African American woman appointed as an IPD officer, and Mary Mays, another other African American, were among the original group of policewomen. Baker, Mays, and police sergeant Clara Burnside were the city's first policewomen to work outside the police station, patrolling public areas in downtown Indianapolis. These early female police officers carried badges and earned the same pay as male police officers, but they were unarmed and wore civilian clothes while on duty.[4]

The policewomen patrolled the city's dance halls, movie houses, bars, and restaurants. By 1920, sixteen women dealt with shoplifters, runaways, and young girls on the streets. By 1939, the number of policewomen had declined to fourteen who worked only as matrons, clerks, or telephone operators. With World War II came a shortage of manpower and the department saw an increase in the number of women employed. In November 1943, two armed, uniformed policewomen were assigned to traffic posts on Monument Circle. By 1947 there were twenty-six women on the department, six of whom worked on the street.

The Indianapolis Police Department became the first police department in the United States to assign policewomen to patrol cars when Officers Elizabeth Robinson and Betty Blankenship were assigned Car 47 in September 1968. On June 8, 1976, Officer Penny Davis, a veteran of the force, became the first woman assigned to the Investigations Division. In January 1992, Davis became the first woman to hold the rank of Deputy Chief. Two years later, Patricia Holman became the first African-American female Deputy Chief. Deborah Saunders was appointed to the rank of Assistant Chief in 1999.[1]