IMPD steps up efforts in troubled area after officer shooting

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indianapolis, west side, Michigan Street and Tibbs Avenue: a place now front and center following the unprovoked shooting of IMPD Officer Dustin Carmack.

Carmack was shot Friday while doing paper work in his squad car. He's now recovering at home.

But the relationship between police and some residents in the area may take longer to repair.

"A lot of people around here say it should have happened," area resident Marqis Edwards said. "That's just the story. That's your story because it's real."

Edwards said there's resentment in the air from those in the community that feel picked on by police patrols.

But there are others who believe patrols need to be beefed up.

"I got a gun pulled out on me in my own front yard," are resident Kristy Sizemore said. "I want to see more police action out here, I really do."

The area around the intersection of Michigan Street and Tibbs Avenue has long been known to police.

Officers were called to the area 47 times in the past month for various offenses, including four warrant arrests, three harassments, three domestic batteries, two assaults, six thefts, two burglaries and two frauds.

Within one hour Monday night, 24-Hour News 8 witnessed an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer make three traffic stops.

Charlie Stinson, who has called the area home his whole life, said there's always "action" in the neighborhood.

"You don't need TV, you just sit out on the porch," he said.

Police have vowed to re-up their efforts in "hotspots."

"We're not going to tolerate getting shot at," Public Safety Director Frank Straub said from outside the hospital where Carmack was being treated on Friday. "If this is the way it's going to be, then we're coming into the neighborhoods, and we're going to take control of the neighborhoods."