As the city considers how it will spend nearly $1.9 billion next year, there’s one item on the annual budget that is already locked in: Funding for 1,743 police officers.
The city is required to fund that many officers through at least 2028, according to an agreement between the city and the police union — even though the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department in recent years has failed to attract hundreds of officers it needs to meet that goal.
At a press briefing on the budget in August, Chief Tanya Terry said IMPD is able to provide the same level of service as 1,743 officers because the money pays for overtime.
Asked about how the city and the department arrived at that number, a spokesperson from IMPD said the agreement for 1,743 officers was made in 2016, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s first year in office. The spokesperson referred other questions to the Fraternal Order of Police.
Rick Snyder, president of the FOP, the union that represents IMPD officers, did not return a call from Mirror Indy.
Emily Kaufmann, spokesperson for Hogsett’s office, declined to answer questions about the agreement ahead of a Sept. 9 hearing, when IMPD officials will present their 2027 budget to the City-County Council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.
That’s also when the public will have an opportunity to comment on IMPD’s proposed budget.
IMPD will present its proposed 2027 budget to the City-County Council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Public Assembly Room of the City-County Council Building, 200 E. Washington St. Attend in person or watch live on Channel 16.
Josh Riddick, an organizer with Live Free Indiana, said the amount of funding locked into officers IMPD can’t hire is frustrating when the city has to make tough choices elsewhere in the budget. Live Free Indiana seeks to end gun violence and mass incarceration.
“It’s a number that everybody knows, when they’re honest, it’s not going to get filled,” Riddick said. “We can do so many better things with our dollars than throw it at overtime slush funds.”
Riddick said commitments for these officers are baked into the same budget that proposes, for example, to cut funding for the release lobby, a program that provides resources to individuals leaving the county jail.
During his 2015 mayoral campaign, Hogsett pledged to increase the city’s police force by 150 by the end of his first term. Throughout his tenure, however, the department has struggled to hire and retain enough officers to meet its staffing goals.
The number of IMPD officers has fallen almost every year since 2020, part of a trend for police agencies nationally.
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Emily Hopkins is a senior reporter at Mirror Indy. You can reach them by phone or Signal at 317-790-5268 or email at emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis or on Bluesky @emilyhopkins.bsky.social.
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