INDIANAPOLIS -- A Democratic member of the Indianapolis City-County Council issued a scathing statement Thursday criticizing IMPD for not promoting enough minority officers.
Rev. Stephen J. Clay, who represents District 13 (roughly Emerson Avenue to Post Road and I-70 to 56th Street), said IMPD is only paying "lip service to diversity."
"The current promotion list is yet another example, in the photo album of this department, that seems to indicate a commitment to preserving the status quo of lily-white officers," Clay wrote in a statement released Thursday. "I've become exhausted with the promises of chiefs and administrations, both Democrat and Republican, that pay lip service to diversity, while their policies and promotions tell another story."
Clay said out of 23 recent recommendations for promotion to sergeant, the only minority officers have been one black male and one Latino female.
"There is no real effort to make IMPD more reflective of the community it serves," Clay wrote. "It is the opinion of this councilor, and a growing group of others, that the Police Civilian Merit Board should either be demolished or reconfigured to make way for the kind of forward thinking that would not allow this kind of narrow-minded promotion list to be advanced."
IMPD's makeup is 82.3 percent white, 14 percent black and 2.5 percent Hispanic, compared to Marion County as a whole, which is 57.9 percent white, 24.5 percent black and 8.6 percent Hispanic.
Major Richard Riddle released the following statement to RTV6 in response to Clay Thursday afternoon:
“While IMPD recognizes and understands the community’s concern for diversity to include race, gender and ethnicity within IMPD, we have traditionally been challenged to attract minority candidates to participate and complete the promotional process. We welcome the input of community groups, City/County Councilors, and our own workforce to develop strategies for increased participation in the promotional process. After every promotional process, we look at national best practices to determine the best way to assess the readiness of officers to be promoted into higher ranks. We have worked with several vendors, in regards to our promotional process, to ensure the testing and assessment phases are inclusive and fair for all that choose to participate.”
Riddle also pointed out that the general order governing how promotion eligibility lists are determined mandates the chief may only promote candidates from the list, and that after each promotion, each candidate on the list is moved up one spot accordingly. The list itself is determined by the chief and the Civilian Police Merit Board based upon an examination devised by the department.
IMPD said minority officers make up 22 percent of its most recent promotions list. Nationally, IMPD said that number is above average for a department its size.
The department devises a new promotion test every two-and-a-half years, at which point a new promotion list immediately supersedes all preceding lists.
