|
|
Indianapolis Government
Indianapolis utilizes Unigov, a
complex, multi-tiered City-county consolidated government, with overlapping
and incomplete jurisdictions at many levels. The current mayor of
Indianapolis (as of 2006) is Bart Peterson (D). Mayors since the institution
of the current government structure have been: Steve Goldsmith (R),
1992-1999, William Hudnut (R), 1976-1991, and current U.S. Senator Dick
Lugar (R), who served 1968-1975.
Law enforcement
Indianapolis (Indianapolis Police Department) and Marion County (Marion
County Sheriff's Department) had maintained separate police agencies. On
January 1, 2007, a new agency, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police
Department was formed by adding the law enforcement branch of the Marion
County Sheriff Department to the current Indianapolis Police Department.
IMPD is a distinct agency, while the Sheriff's Department will continue in
its jail and court functions. IMPD has jurisdiction over those portions of
Marion County not explicitly covered by the police of an excluded city or by
a legacy pre-Unigov force.
Crime
For the past decade, crime rates within Indianapolis city limits have
fluctuated greatly. In the late 1990s, violent crimes in inner-city
neighborhoods located within the old city limits (pre-consolidation) peaked.
The IPD police district, which serves about 37% of the county's total
population and has a geographic area covering mostly the old
pre-consolidation city limits, recorded 130 homicides in the year 1998 to
average approximately 40.3 homicides per 100,000 people.[citation needed]
This is over 6 times the 1998 national homicide average of 6.3 per 100,000
people.[citation needed] Meanwhile, Marion County Sheriff's police district
serving the remaining 63% of the county's population, which includes the
majority of the residents in the Consolidated City, recorded only 32
homicides in 1998, averaging about 5.9 murders per 100,000 people, slightly
less than the 1998 national homicide average. Homicides in the IPD police
district dropped dramatically in 1999 and have remained lower through 2005.
In 2005, the IPD police district recorded 88 homicides to average 27.3
homicides per 100,000 people; none the less, the murder rate in the IPD
district is still almost 5 times the 2005 national average.
When considering the total Consolidated City of Indianapolis, the overall
crime rate has historically been low compared to the national average.
Nonetheless, crime in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods remains a
problem. Areas of Indianapolis that were unincorporated or separate
municipalities before the 1970 city-county consolidation generally have
significantly lower crime rates although their aggregate population is
higher than the old pre-consolidation Indianapolis city limits. Thus, crime
figures for the Consolidated City and the entire Marion County average out
to a low rate. However, according to FBI reports in 2006, for the first half
of the year, Indianapolis saw one of the larger increases in homicides in
the country for the first half of 2006 as compared to the same time period
in 2005. Overall violent crime in Indianapolis increased 8% for the first
half of 2006 compared to the first half of 2005. While Marion County has
still not surpassed its record homicide number of 162 set in 1998, it is on
pace to see one of the highest numbers of homicides since 1998, with 153
committed in 2006 as the year draws to a close.
Politics
Until the late 1990s, Indianapolis was considered to be one of the most
conservative metropolitan areas in the country but this trend is reversing.
Republicans had held the majority in the City-County Council for 36 years,
and the city had a Republican mayor for 32 years from 1967 to 1999. Then in
the 1999 mayoral election, Democrat Bart Peterson defeated Indiana Secretary
of State Sue Anne Gilroy by 52 percent to 41 percent. Four years later,
Peterson was re-elected in a landslide with 63 percent of the vote.
Republicans narrowly lost control of the City-County Council that year.
In 2004, Democrats won the Marion County offices of treasurer, surveyor and
coroner. The GOP lost further ground during the 2006 elections with
Democrats winning the offices of county clerk, assessor, recorder and
auditor. Only one GOP countywide office remains: Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who
narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy by four percentage
points for a second term. At the township level, Democrats picked up the
trustee offices in Washington, Lawrence, Warren and Wayne townships, while
holding on to Pike and Center townships.
John Kerry defeated George W. Bush in the 2004 U.S. presidential election by
roughly 6,000 votes in Marion County, 51 percent to 49 percent. |
|
