IMPD is above average in solving murders in 2018
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has a heavy case load,with detectives investigating more than 85 homicides in 2018.
However, IMPD has solved around 70 percent of the homicide cases in the city this year.
The national average is around 60 percent for most homicide units around the country. Those numbers can drop with each homicide that remains unsolved, and they can go up when a murder is cleared. IMPD credits detectives, residents and community leaders with the high clearance rate.
Last year, the department’s solve rate was around 40 percent.
“It’s the hard work the detectives are doing day in, day out; it is the hard work that the beat officers are doing; it is the hard work that the community is doing in providing tips,” said IMPD Sgt. Jim Gillespie.
Since taking office, Mayor Joe Hogsett has added to IMPD’s police force. As new officers go out on the streets, some of the veteran officers have been moved up to IMPD’s homicide office, which has given the department more investigators.
“It (the case) gets assigned to the homicide detective, and it really just becomes a part of them because they grow that close relationship with that family, and it’s something that they carry with them throughout their career,” Gillespie said.
Despite the high rate in solving homicides this year, the department is aware there are a number of cases that remain unsolved in Indianapolis.
“When somebody takes that last breath, and our homicide detectives pick it up, they don’t rest and they don’t quit and they don’t forget about those families or person that lost their life,” said Gillespie.
