Community Link: IMPD in the community

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — This week on Community Link, we discussed how officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department are keeping the streets safe.

Metro Police West District Commander Lorenzo Lewis dropped by our studios to share some information.

How are things going in the district you are commander?

Things are going well, I have a good team on the northwest district who get it. They understand that it’s important to connect with the community to have that positive relationship. We have a very diverse district which is very enjoyable for me and the other officers to work in.

What can we do as a citizen to help reduce crime?

We can’t do it alone, we have to do it together. I think that’s major for citizens to report any kind of suspicious activity that they see and not to worry about language barriers. We have resources who help with that and we have officers who work in the community to help break down barriers. 

Many immigrants don’t contribute more with IMPD because they are afraid officers will act as agents for ICE. Is that true?

We’re not ICE, it’s a very separate department, and we go to different communities to get that message out.  We don’t enforce immigration at all. 

Many minorities have a fear of authoritative figures because of implicit bias. What are you doing as IMPD to address that?

We’ve taken giant steps in that direction. We’ve all gone through implicit bias training. Every officer gets that training. It’s important for us to understand how beliefs affect others and things we say and do to affect others.