A leadership change at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has some community activists hopeful that local law enforcement will do more to address violent crime, an increase in police shootings and other incidents that have a disproportionate impact on the city’s Black residents.

Chris Bailey was sworn in as police chief Monday, replacing Randal Taylor, who stepped down in December after serving four years in the role. A 25-year veteran of the department, Bailey was most recently assistant chief but has served in various capacities throughout his career.

His hiring comes as the department struggles to fill hundreds of officer vacancies and reckons with questions about its handling of several high-profile incidents, including when an officer stomped on a man’s face near Monument Circle and the tragic death of Herman Whitfield III, who was having a mental health crisis when police used a stun gun on him.

There were also 18 police action shootings in 2023, according to an IMPD spokesperson, the vast majority of which involved people of color.

In response, the department has promised to partner with a national organization that will conduct an outside review of police shootings. The city is expected to release more details in the coming weeks, Bailey said.

Members of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis — a fellowship of clergy and other citizens focused on social justice issues that called for Taylor’s resignation last year — said they had been asking the city for an outside review process for years. They’re hopeful that new management will be more receptive to their concerns.

“It was a little bit of a fractured relationship,” said the Rev. Darrell Brooks, a pastor at New Liberty Missionary Baptist Church on the east side. “The relationship was very frustrating because we had concerns we had taken to the police department, but yet these incidents, these police shootings, continued to happen, and so it seems as though our concerns were falling on deaf ears.”

The Rev. Charles Harrison of the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition, a nonprofit that aims to reduce violent crime, spoke highly of Bailey, who worked with him in 2017 to solve a string of fatal shootings that afflicted the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood. Bailey was commander of IMPD’s North District at the time.

“We had a gang in that neighborhood,” Harrison recalls. “At that time, Bailey was having daily conversations with community leaders about what was going on, what was happening on the ground, what they were doing. The community was sharing intel, and together I think that’s what made it successful in curbing the violence in that neighborhood.”

City-County Councilor Paul Annee, a Republican from Perry Township who serves on the public safety committee, praised Mayor Joe Hogsett’s decision to appoint Bailey as chief.

“He’s a steady hand that I think will guide the department through some of the most important years in recent memory,” Annee told Mirror Indy.

In his more than two decades at IMPD, Bailey has had a near-perfect career apart from a 2004 incident in which he was arrested after he was accused of punching and threatening his estranged wife’s male friend, according to an IndyStar article published at the time. Those involved in the incident later downplayed the event, though Bailey was ultimately convicted of a misdemeanor after initially facing two felony charges. His record was later expunged.

In an interview with Mirror Indy, Bailey said he “owned every bit of” the incident and believes that “people have the ability to do better and be better.”

It’s a chapter of his life he’s grown accustomed to explaining. In 2019, when Bailey was deputy chief of investigations at IMPD, he left Indianapolis to take a job as police chief in Asheville, North Carolina, but he later resigned after less than three months on the job. Bailey said he quit to be with his wife and children in Indianapolis, but his abrupt departure opened an old wound after a blogger published more details about the 2004 incident.

The Rev. David W. Greene Sr., a pastor at Purpose of Life Ministries and president of the Concerned Clergy, said he hopes Bailey will be accountable should one of his officers become involved in a domestic violence case.

“For me the biggest thing that I will observe is making sure these opportunities or second opportunities don’t just apply to a white man,” Greene said. “Every year, it appears there’s some officer involved in domestic violence. Will the chief be able to handle it in a way that it should be handled, versus sidestepping the issue because of his own personal experiences? I think it puts him in a challenging position.”

“We need a police chief that can hold people accountable,” he added. “The community will be watching.”

Mirror Indy reporter Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.