South Bend Police quarterly update discusses officer diversity, increase in gun violence deaths

SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Police Department is on track to be fully staffed for the first time since the summer of 2019.

At the department's quarterly public safety update meeting Wednesday, South Bend Mayor James Mueller made that announcement.

"It's looking like probably summer of this year, we will be fully staffed," the mayor said. "I believe last time we were close to being fully staffed was a moment in time in the summer of 2019, but we're hoping and looking to stay at these levels for an extended period of time in the future."

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The department's 10-year staffing high was in July 2019 when it employed 243 officers. However, over the past two years, that number has averaged between 215 and 220 officers, SBPD Operations Division Chief Dan Skibins said.

"We even went as low as 209 in the summertime of 2022 …," Skibins continued. "COVID and other national incidents that occurred caused a large number of officers to retire or even resign early … So we've been working hard to build back, and that number is up to 231."

The SBPD hired 51 new officers in 2022, a massive increase from 18 new hires in 2021. Of the 51 new hires, 31 have been sworn in while the others are finishing their training. Sixteen are currently training at the SBPD's on-site academy. Those in training will graduate on Feb. 24 and be sworn in in March.

"Add 16 to 31 … unless we have 10-to-12 individuals suddenly retire between February and March, we're going to be back at or over the 243 that we had in the summer of 2019," Skibins said.

Department seeks to increase officer diversity

Skibins said the priority in the department's recruitment of new officers has been to increase diversity on the force.

"It's not just bringing several people into the hiring process; it's also becoming more diverse as a police department," he said. "We've worked with the younger officers that are diverse in our department, gotten them out there to recruiting events, and it's paid off extensively for us, as you can see in the percentages."

Between October 2022 and December 2022:

• The percentage of female SBPD officers increased from 9.6% to 9.9%.

• The percentage of African American officers increased from 10% to 10.8%.

• The percentage of Hispanic officers increased from 7.6% to 8.2%.

In the coming years, Skibins said the department will likely reach the national averages of about 14% African American, 12% female and 10% Hispanic officers, but the department doesn't intend to stop there.

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"We're well on our way to getting back to where we should be, and it's not our overall goal," Skibins said. "(Our goal) is to be better than other departments in the country."

Last year saw more shooting victims, fewer shooting incidents than 2021

During Wednesday's meeting, SBPD officials also presented gun violence statistics for 2022.

Between 2021 and 2022, the number of gun violence incidents decreased from 1,120 to 950, a difference of 170. However, the number of shooting victims increased slightly from 121 to 124. Twenty-five shooting victims died.

In May, the department reported 43 gun violence victims so far in 2022, down from 46 at the same time in May 2021.

In March, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed House Bill 1296 into law, which eliminated the license requirement to carry a handgun in Indiana. Beginning in July, any Indiana resident 18 or older who could carry a handgun with a permit previously can now do so without one.

"It's just a feeling, an anecdotal feeling that I have, but how coincidental that once the gun permit law passed, we saw an increase (in gun violence victims)," SBPD Chief of Police Scott Ruszkowski said. "We didn't see it before, and now we're seeing it afterward."

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In March, Ruszkowski ― along with Mueller, St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter and Isaac Hunt of the Group Violence Intervention Project ― called on Holcomb to veto House Bill 1296.

Ruszkowski said most acts of gun violence are crimes of emotion or passion.

"This is something that has drawn somebody to pull a trigger, to never get that bullet back, never get a do over," Ruszkowski said. "And it affects not just that one family … it's an entire community that's devastated by something like that."

Department sees increase in homicide investigation closure rate

Lt. Kayla Miller reported that the SBPD conducted 26 homicide investigations in 2022, one of which was a Mishawaka officer-involved shooting that did not take place in South Bend.

Of the 26 investigations, 19 have been resolved and seven remain open. The mayor said that some of the open cases happened toward the end of 2022 and may still be resolved.

Miller said, in April, Michiana Crimestoppers will be releasing a new digital campaign for three of the open cases. The campaign will run from April through June.

In addition to the 26 homicide investigations, the SBPD investigated seven suspicious deaths in 2022, all of which have been resolved.

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Beginning Oct. 15, 2021, the SBPD took over all homicide and suspicious death investigations within the city limits, after the county's Metro Homicide Unit was dissolved. Between Oct. 15 and the end of 2021, there were four homicide investigations and one suspicious death investigation, all of which were resolved, Miller said.

"When you look at the totals, you can see that, since taking over Oct. 15 of 2021, there have been a total of 30 homicide investigations, 23 resolved, seven open, eight suspicious death investigations, with all eight of those being resolved," Miller said. "There was a total of 38 death investigations with 30 total murder victims and a closure rate of 86 percent."

Ruszkowski said, in 2021, there was a total of 16 cases with nine remaining open at the end of the year, and, in 2020, there were 29 cases with 10 remaining open at the end of the year. In 2021 and 2020, there was a 43.75% and 65.5% resolved rate at the end of the year, respectively, according to Ruszkowski.

"The national (resolved) rate is about 50-to-52 percent," Mueller said. "So we're very proud of our violent crimes team for the rate up to above 80 percent."

Department adds mental health data to transparency hub

This year, Ruszkowski said, the SBPD plans to add data on calls related to mental health and psychological incidents to its online transparency hub, allowing the public to see when and where the police respond to these incidents.

"We want our community and everybody else to know what we're doing and what we're dealing with … since this has yet again become a hot or hotter topic than it has in the past when it comes to mental or psychological stress or incidents," Ruszkowski said.

Ruszkowski said the department responded to 1,154 known mental health related calls in 2022, although he noted this number does not account for calls regarding other incidents or crimes where mental health may have been a factor.

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Ruszkowski said, currently, his department is tasked with deciding where someone suffering a mental health crisis should go after police respond to it. Options can include the hospital, jail or mental health facilities like Oaklawn or Beacon's Memorial Epworth Center, depending on circumstances.

"That (decision) lies on us … It's time for that to change," Ruszkowski said.

In December, Ruszkowski spoke out against St. Joseph County commissioners stalling to approve a behavioral health crisis center in the county after the center's final approval was removed from the commissioners' agenda on Dec. 20.

If the crisis center had been in place, "Probably my cousin wouldn’t be in the ICU as of two days ago,” Ruszkowski told the commissioners in December, noting his cousin suffered from a mental health issue.

Ruszkowski added that the police have been seeking the community’s help in dealing with mental health calls for at least three years.

“The police have been begging for help in dealing with things we shouldn’t be dealing with,” he told the commissioners. “We have been transparent. We have been open.”

In January, Mayor Mueller announced the City of South Bend will provide $2.66 million in American Rescue Plan money to pay for the building and the first year of expenses of the behavioral crisis center. The center will be built in the existing Epworth Hospital and will provide 14 beds for residents in need of emergency mental health care.

Email Tribune staff writer Claire Reid at cereid@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Police officer diversity improves.