Potholes, crime and Amazon: Mayor Hogsett talks re-election campaign
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Mayor Joe Hogsett sat down with News 8 for an interview one day after announcing his plans to run for re-election.
Here’s some of what the interview covered.
The city’s approach to violent crime
During his campaign, the mayor will have to answer to Indianapolis’ violent crime rate.
Hogsett campaigned in 2015 as a crime fighter and former federal prosecutor. But in his first two years in office, the number of murders in the city grew to historic highs.
“We’re making progress. The challenges that Indianapolis faces, really the level of gun violence Indianapolis has experienced, has been increasing over the last 10 years,” Hogsett said.
Hogsett said police and city leaders are now taking a more neighborhood-based approach. This past summer, the city awarded $300,000 in grants to local groups dedicated to reducing gun violence.
Many of the groups work with struggling kids. The grant program will continue next year.
“Police officers and IMPD itself will not solve the gun violence in our city. It’s going to take all of us,” Hogsett said.
When asked what he will change about his approach to violent crime if he is re-elected, Hogsett said, “We’re going to double down on what we’re already doing because I think it is making a difference.”
“The truth is that crime generally has been reduced,” Hogsett said.
The mayor pointed to FBI statistics that show overall crime dropped in the city in 2017. He also said that over the past five to six months, the number of murders have dropped from last year.
IMPD said there were 151 murders this time last year, compared to 148 so far this year.
“Any homicide in the city of Indianapolis is unacceptable,” Hogsett said. “The level of gun violence that too many of our neighborhoods have experienced needs to be addressed and is being addressed.”
Hogsett’s plan to add IMPD officers
The mayor said he is dedicated to his campaign promise to add 150 officers to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department by the end of 2019.
But while the new recruits come in, more officers are leaving IMPD than expected. According to IMPD, 103 officers have left in 2018 through attrition, including 24 who didn’t make it through training. By comparison, the department expected just 69 to leave this year.
“A lot of the attrition is the result of retirements. Once an officer has served long enough and had their retirement vested, I don’t blame them for taking advantage of the hard work and perhaps moving on to new opportunities,” Hogsett said. “But at the end of the day, it’s important to remember that, while we have had attrition at IMPD, the 2019 operating budget for the city of Indianapolis includes support for two entire recruit classes next year.”
When pressed on why 103 officers have left compared to IMPD’s projection of 69 officers leaving, Hogsett said, “Perhaps some officers we’ve lost to better job opportunities.”
“You’d have to check with the officers themselves as to what their motives were for leaving IMPD,” Hogsett said. “But we will be aggressive in recruiting new officers.”
Indianapolis pothole preparedness
Hogsett praised the Indianapolis City-County Council for approving $126 million for road resurfacing in 2019 and another $500 million for road infrastructure work over the next four to five years.
“The Indiana winters tend to be pretty tough on us, but that’s not what taxpayers want to hear. They want to hear what you’re going to do in the future and how you’re going to prospectively address the situation,” Hogsett said.
The mayor said the city’s Department of Public Works will be on top of road repairs this winter.
“We have committed the type of resources that will alow us as a city to, I hope, better prepare, better stay on top of and therefore provide commuters with a safer and smoother trip to and from work.”
Last February, the mayor asked the City-County Council to drain a $13-million Rainy Day Fund as potholes plagued the city. The council agreed to the request.
When asked Thursday if there’s anything he could have done to better prepare last winter, Hogsett said, “I don’t participate in the blame game.”
He went on to say “I don’t think that (blaming others) is what taxpayers want to hear. The deferred maintenance, over the course of many years, it is the result fo many years of overlooking or ignoring the immediate needs of our road infrastructure. But again, I want to be the kind of mayor that does not look back. I want to be the kind of mayor that sees the problems as they exist today and proposes solutions for how we resolve them in the future.”
Amazon’s HQ2 decision
Hogsett said he believes Indianapolis stayed “in the hunt” for Amazon’s HQ2 right up until the company’s final decision.
“The additional information that we were asked to provide after the initial response was made, I think, was indicative of the level of interest they showed in Indianapolis. I want to be clear: I was never in a room with Amazon officials where these things were being discussed, but from the outside looking in, I think we have reason to believe that Indianapolis competed very well for what was the largest economic development in our country’s history,” Hogsett said.
When asked why he would not release details of the incentives offered to Amazon, Hogsett responded:
“At the end of the day, I think that it behooves our economic development project going forward for those companies who may be looking at Indianapolis, that specific set of facts was specific to this proposal and cannot be helpful to any company that’s looking at Indianapolis for economic development opportunities.”