INDIANAPOLIS (February 3, 2021) – Today, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) released a report entitled “Police Reform: Equal Treatment of Black Americans,” the culmination of months of work by a legal Structural Reform Team formed in the summer of 2020 and charged by GIPC to research, benchmark, and make recommendations on the most critical police reforms needed. GIPC formed the Team in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the awakening to the often years-long hardship experienced by Black people who encounter our criminal justice system.

Among other key findings, the report recommends increasing public access to misconduct investigations, improving police training and certification, and applying new approaches to community policing to mirror effective practices in other cities.

“Our cities cannot advance for some and not for all,” said GIPC Board Chair Mary Chandler, who also leads community relations at Cummins Inc. “U.S. cities are now engaged in a long-overdue reckoning about systemic racism and inequality that have left many Black Americans behind, and Indianapolis is no exception. We must search inward to understand the Black lived experience in our City, and outward to define the policies and actions necessary to achieve racial equality and justice. This was our purpose in convening the Structural Reform Team.”

“GIPC has great respect for the many brave and dedicated police officers who protect and serve our community every day, often in dangerous and complex circumstances. However, we must address the instances of mistreatment and excessive or deadly force experienced by some of our Black citizens in encounters with law enforcement,” said Tony Mason, President and CEO of the Indianapolis Urban League and GIPC Executive Committee Member.

“We see these recommendations as an important step forward in the controversial and complicated civic conversation around policing reform,” added Tiffany Benjamin of the GIPC Executive Committee and Senior Director of Social Impact for Eli Lilly and Company.

As a not-for-profit organization, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee issued the report with the understanding that others will carry this work forward to effectuate meaningful change at the local, state, and federal level.

The Team was chaired by Dean Karen Bravo of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and led by John Gaidoo, Assistant General Counsel of Cummins Inc., and Joe Smith, partner of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath.

The full report can be found at indygipc.org/initiatives/race-and-the-legal-process-working-group/structural-reform-team-recommendations.

About the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee

Founded in 1965, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) is a private, non-profit, and non-partisan organization that provides a forum in which leaders of the public and private sectors of Indianapolis can work as partners to study, discuss, and address issues of concern and areas of opportunity which affect the progress of the city. Driven by business and civic leaders, GIPC represents the bipartisan alliance that is a continuing example of public-private partnership in Indianapolis.

CONTACT:
Beth White
GIPC Executive Director
(317) 327-3820
beth.white@indygipc.org