Republican mayoral candidate Shreve calls for stricter gun control in public safety plan

Republican mayoral candidate Jefferson Shreve released a public safety proposal Thursday calling for the hiring of a public safety director, stricter gun control measures, increased recruitment of IMPD officers, tackling violent crime and addressing root causes of crime.

"Crime is rampant in Indianapolis — and it calls for systemic change," Shreve said at a news conference Thursday at The Vanguard restaurant in Broad Ripple, a community that saw three shooting fatalities on one weekend last month. "We're on track to break yet another crime record this year."

Indianapolis has had 100 criminal homicides this year so far, compared to 116 on the same date in 2022 and 133 in 2021, according to IMPD data.

Shreve accused Hogsett of failing to improve Indianapolis' public safety and of not having a plan.

The Hogsett campaign criticized Shreve's plan as not being a serious set of policies.

"Today's speech was a hodgepodge of repackaged programs that already exist and meaningless platitudes," Blake Hesch, Hogsett's campaign manager, wrote in a statement. "And when it comes to Jefferson's relationship with the gun lobby, he was either misleading them in 2016 to get the NRA’s highest grade, or he’s misleading us now. Either way, he’s willing to say or do anything to get elected."

Hesch was referring to the AQ rating, the highest available for a candidate without an established voting record, given to Shreve by the National Rifle Association during Shreve's 2016 Indiana Senate bid, when he lost the Republican primary.

Shreve had told IndyStar in April that he has an NRA membership that dates back to him having taken their handgun safety course in 2011, when he bought a handgun that he still owns, but that was the extent of his involvement in the NRA.

Here is what Shreve proposed he would do, if elected mayor.

Strict gun control

In a break from his Republican colleagues at the Indianapolis City-County Council and the Indiana General Assembly, Shreve called for working with the state legislature to give Indianapolis the ability to set its own, stricter gun control laws.

A 2011 Indiana law prohibits cities, including Indianapolis, from passing local gun control regulation. Shreve's proposals would require a repeal or change to state law. He said he's been speaking with state legislators and will work those relationships to pass these laws.

Shreve said he would seek:

• Raising the legal age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21

• Repealing permitless carry, which the Indiana General Assembly successfully passed for handguns last year

• Banning assault weapon sales

Indianapolis Republicans on the City-County Council had strongly opposed the measures when Hogsett proposed them, calling it unconstitutional and said it violated rights of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves.

Shreve's gun control plan bears striking resemblance to that of his opponent, Mayor Joe Hogsett's, administration. This week, the City-County Council passed Hogsett's gun control plan, which included the above three gun control measures, but which was symbolic because Indiana law prevents it from being enforced.

Shreve acknowledged the similarities. But he pointed to what he considers a key difference.

"Critics may say that Shreve policies on parts of this subject are not different from Mayor Hogsett’s," he wrote in his plan. "However, the process of approaching the General Assembly matters."

He differentiated himself from Hogsett stating that he would take the plan to the General Assembly at the start of session, in year one of his administration, if elected. He accused Hogsett of releasing his gun plan as a "political talking point" that rolled out after the legislative session ended this year.

Shreve also said he would expand the boundary for local ordinances banning firearm discharge to include the entire city limits. Indianapolis' current firearm discharge ordinance only applies within the police special service district, which are the old Indianapolis city limits before Unigov, along reservoirs, and across public ways, he said.

Hiring a public safety director

Shreve said his top hiring priority if elected would be appointing a public safety director from "top shelf talent". The position was scrapped by Mayor Hogsett when he took office in 2016 as part of bureaucratic restructuring that made the mayor the de factor head of public safety. In its place, Hogsett created the Office of Public Safety.

At the time, Hogsett said it was to eliminate an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and take a more holistic approach to crime.

"The mayor's portfolio is huge," Shreve said when asked why there is a need for a public safety director instead of the mayor overseeing public safety. "I'm not a former firefighter. I'm not a former cop ... I'm a business executive ... A public safety director will live police, fire, EMS dispatch, morning, noon and night, data-driven, and be fully accountable to this mayor and the city of Indianapolis in ways that the mayor of a city of nearly a million people cannot do that well and properly."

Police recruitment and retention

Shreve said he would hire 300 police officers that IMPD is lacking. He criticized Hogsett for the fact that Indianapolis has fewer police officers today than it did in 2017. IMPD has fewer sworn officers as of June 29, at 1,528, than it did in 2017, when it had 1,676 sworn officers.

IMPD has struggled with hiring and retention of police officers since at least 2018 and the problem worsened during the pandemic when many staff in the police department took early retirement.

From 2016 when Hogsett took office to March 23, 2023, IMPD has hired 715 new officers, according to IMPD Assistant Chief Chris Bailey. Hogsett has boasted raising first-year officer pay to $72,000 in campaign ads.

The city has the money to pay for 1,843 officers.

When asked how he would recruit 300 additional officers, Shreve said if IMPD was better at retaining officers, it would struggle less with the shortage. He said police officers are leaving Indianapolis for other cities because they don't feel adequately supported by the administration or the community.

Next year, the Fraternal Order of Police, the police union is expected to renegotiate its collective bargaining agreement, which covers officers with three or more years on the force, with the city, Bailey previously told IndyStar.

Shreve said during that process, he would move more dollars that are currently going to higher first-year officer salaries to raising salaries of veteran officers.

Solving violent crime

Shreve said he would solve cases of violent crime and raise the solve rates by beefing up IMPD's detective core and retaining senior officers.

"It wasn't a lifetime ago — it was just an administration ago — when our solve rate was up at 80%," he said. "Today it's around 30%. This is unacceptable."

Addressing root causes of crime and accountability

Shreve said he would also address root causes of crime, including mental health, and provide transparency through sharing of data about police actions, prosecutorial actions and criminal court actions.

The election is Nov. 7.

Contact the reporter at 317-903-7071 or kcheang@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Shreve calls for stricter gun control in public safety plan