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Faith leaders discuss new commission to aid police, city

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Faith leaders from across the city will form a new commission and offer recommendations to aid the city in its approach to police action shootings.

Community leaders gathered last week after two separate police-involved shootings left two men dead.

They came up with five different recommendations for the community.

  1. Develop policy for release of video and audio in police action shootings.
  2. Require body cameras for all patrolmen and patrolwomen.
  3. Implement implicit bias training.
  4. Develop acceptable definition of transparency.
  5. Discontinue release of biased information about police action shooting victims.

The leaders hope to discuss the recommendations with the prosecutor’s office this week.

Tensions are really very high right now among leaders among the community itself, Ten Point Coalition President Rev. Charles Harrison said.

The first deadly police shooting of 2016 happened Saturday at a McDonald’s on 38th Street when an armed man was killed by police.

The second happened just days later, when Kevin Hicks died at a Marathon gas station parking lot Tuesday night.

Last week Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry held a news conference stating he has no plans to release video tied to Hicks deadly shooting until the investigation is over. He added once the investigation is complete it will go back to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Once there IMPD Chief Troy Riggs says he will release the video to the public.

On Wednesday Chief Riggs is scheduled to meet with the a group of pastors, to discuss ride-a-long opportunities, crime, and he will encourage the monitoring of police involved shooting scenes for accountability.

The pastors thanked Riggs for the department’s level of transparency the night of the deadly shooting involving Kevin Hicks. The pastors were pleased with the updates by IMPD once on the scene, but the group believed releasing the video would be a bigger step ensure transparency throughout the investigation with in the first 24 hours.

Chief Riggs has been in favor of body cameras, currently there are budget constraints after the state legislature agreed that body camera video must be stored for 190 days. The department is in talks with vendors to figure out the cost.

IMPD responded to the recommendation of implicit bias training. Currently IMPD officers receive training in diversity, and cultural sensitivity to combat bias policing.