INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Metro Police Department is taking a closer look at how it disciplines officers who break the rules.
A proposal was presented to the police merit board Tuesday.
It has been six years since IMPD has updated its disciplinary policies.
The merit board heard IMPD Deputy Chief Kendale Adams outline its latest proposal, one top brass said it hopes will carry more legitimacy with both the community and officers.
“An effective discipline system must be fair, firm, efficient, effective and consistent,” said merit board president Frank Sullivan before hearing the plan.
“Officers must know when they engage in misconduct, they will receive fair and appropriate discipline commensurate with the level of misconduct,” said Adams.
The new system would have six categories of misconduct, category A being the least severe, and F being the most serious.
“Perhaps the most straightforward example of category F misconduct is commission of a felony. Another is mistreatment of a person in custody,” explained Adams.
A penalty table details possible disciplines, everything from a verbal warning and a written reprimand to more than a monthlong suspension, or termination by the chief of police.
“Discipline should not be an unexpected event but rather an anticipated consequence of inappropriate conduct,” Adams told the merit board. “Police officers hold a position of trust, a trust bestowed upon them by the department and the community."
Tuesday’s meeting was supposed to be for public comment, but only two people gave feedback. One was from Ethan Evans, a city-county councilor who asked how the new policy might work with the review boards established to look at use of force and general orders.
“I want to know why it wasn’t in this new document and if not, what relationship would this have with these two bodies,” said Evans.
There was also concern that more of the public wasn’t there. Samantha Douglas, representing the Far East Side Community Council, said she found out about the meeting only yesterday.
“This room is not reflective of our community and can’t really give you quality feedback,” Douglas said.
The merit board said it still wants to hear from the community, up until it votes on the new policy on at their Jan. 4 meeting.
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