IMPD adds downtown officers, 66 cameras for basketball tournaments
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The eyes of the basketball world this month will be focused on Indianapolis as the NCAA men’s basketball tourney brings all of its games to Indiana, including four venues in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department leaders say they will have more cops on the streets, more cameras to watch what happens on the streets, and a crime-reporting app.
As the city prepares for the Big Ten and NCAA basketball tournaments, so is IMPD. Lucas Oil Stadium and Bankers Life Fieldhouse are two of the primary venues in the tournaments, and IMPD is ramping up patrols in the downtown area. The department has also expanded the use of private surveillance cameras.
Josh Barker, IMPD’s deputy chief of operations, said Monday the department has added 66 new cameras to its network. “This is an opportunity to leverage new technology that is available to us now that was not available before,” Barker said.
The crime app is called Relay. DJ Muller, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Relay, said Monday, “It is not a social network. It is a serious app to be an additional safety measure for people to feel safe. They are able to get alerts specifically where they are.”
Fishers and IMPD already use Relay to solicit tips and to broadcast criminal activity in real time; IMPD introduced it in October. Users of the app can capture an incident on camera and post that image to the app. The information is then sent to officers in that area. It’s described as a different type of 911 call, all without having to talk to a person.
Muller said the app is “strictly for being able to receive information directly from law enforcement without all the social noise also to report things that are non-emergency that might be concerning.” If a crime, fire or medical emergency is in progress, the app will redirect the user.
Indy Public Safety Foundation pays $100,000 a year for IMPD to be on the Relay app, but it’s free to users.
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