Franklin police making changes, but most say they’re ahead of the curve in light of calls for police reform

An outcry for police reform is sweeping the nation, but locally, most police departments aren’t changing much.

They don’t need to, officials say.

The Black Lives Matter movement spurred protests around the country and sparked conversations demanding police reforms nationwide to stop the deaths of Black people at the hands of law enforcement using excessive force. Recent protests began about two months ago after George Floyd, an unarmed black man who suffocated to death after a former Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes until he eventually lost consciousness.

The movement has asked for a variety of reforms, from banning choke holds, to giving less taxpayer dollars to police, to hiring more mental health and diversity professionals within departments to better train officers.

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Franklin maps out changes

The Franklin Police Department will see a number of changes within the next year, including securing body cameras for all 53 officers, bringing on a therapy dog and hiring a licensed crisis intervention officer to focus solely on mental health and diversity training at the department and within the community.

Franklin police has wanted body cameras for years, but the funding wasn’t there, Chief Kirby Cochran said. Now, the department is asking the Franklin City Council for about $600,000 for the camera system, which can hopefully be purchased at the beginning of next year, Cochran said.

"Most departments would love to have them. Most of them can’t afford it. It’s not just buying a camera and sticking it on a body," Cochran said.

The Greenwood Police Department and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office are the only other departments in the county that use body cameras.

These changes aren’t being made in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. It just happened to coincide with the city’s long-term efforts to improve the police department and develop better community relationships, Cochran said. 

"We understand that in the community, we have some issues, not just with any particular movements, but with mental health," he said. "Do we have all the tools to deal with it? No."

So the department is adding those tools to deal with a variety of community problems. The new crisis intervention officer will have a master’s degree in psychology or diversity studies or a related field, Cochran said. Ideally, the individual will be housed at the police department to lead diversity trainings for officers, provide mental health services and respond to runs where they could maybe deescalate a situation.

"Let’s say we get a mental health call, that person will either ride with an officer or we’ll send them out separately to go out and deal with non-volatile situations," Cochran said.

"When we’re having these issues, and then trying to understand as an officer, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t really understand this as a problem because I haven’t dealt with it, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.’ This person is the expert that will be able to help us understand."

The crisis intervention officer will also serve as a mental health outreach coordinator, helping the community with drug addiction rehabilitation.

Cochran does not agree with the national movement pushing for less money to be given to police departments, he said. But local police should be willing to make changes to do their jobs better. 

"Obviously, I’m a career police officer, and I’m not for defunding the police at all … I will tell you this, we do need to change a little bit of our mindset on what and who we can work with to improve on the service we’re already providing," he said.

More of the same

The Greenwood Police Department doesn’t plan on changing anything because it already does a good job protecting its community, Chief John Laut said.

Greenwood borders Marion County, where officers in Indianapolis deal with race issues more often. Greenwood doesn’t have those problems, thankfully, he said. 

"We just don’t have instances of force against people of color. I don’t really have an answer for that. I’m proud to say we don’t have to make a lot of changes," Laut said. 

The Greenwood Police Department was one of the first departments in central Indiana to equip its officers with body cameras in 2015—an action just now being taken by Indianapolis police. The equipment has been a valuable asset for the department, he said. 

"The body worn cameras have been a tool that change the behavior of both the police and the citizens because they know they are being recorded," Laut said. 

Greenwood has a Police Merit Commission, which is made up of Greenwood residents who are tasked with the selection, appointment, promotion, demotion, discipline or dismissal of the city’s police officers.

Laut knows Greenwood isn’t exempt from having bad apples though, he said. One officer has been dismissed from the department since Laut became chief in 2012, and other complaints have gone under review, including investigating use-of-force when a Greenwood officer deployed a Taser on a man 16 times in 2017. The man died two weeks later, and the death was ruled accidental, but the department faced scrutiny from the public and the man’s family, claiming the officers used excessive force.

Before Laut became chief, a Greenwood officer was dismissed in 2011 after an altercation with citizens in a parking lot, where he allegedly pulled a gun on them. Then-Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson fired the police chief for handling the incident poorly, and the assistant chief also resigned.

"You don’t want to be around an officer who uses excessive force … and you don’t want to be in a situation where you have to use force because A: It’s not going to be pretty, and B: Someone is going to get hurt," Laut said.

Neither Cochran nor Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess could recall any issues of excessive use-of-force by officers in their respective departments in recent years, they said.

A Franklin officer was terminated in 2017 by the Franklin Police Merit Commission, after he was arrested following a domestic dispute at his home. The police department and its attorney said at the time the officer "treats people poorly, can’t control himself and brings dishonor to the police department."

The sheriff’s office also has no plans to change any of its policies at the moment because the department does not have any issues with excessive use-of-force or racism, Burgess said. All 158 deputies are extensively trained and vetted before they’re hired, and all personnel are monitored for their actions while on the force.

This helps the sheriff’s office keep standards high and lessens the likelihood of someone slipping through the cracks who doesn’t have the character, personality and demeanor the office strives to maintain, Burgess said. 

"You’re hiring someone who has the ability to take someone’s freedom away … this is a power nobody else has, and you’ve got to understand what to with it," he said.

Burgess sits on the legislative committee for the Indiana Sheriff’s Association, and the committee has a meeting in August where law enforcement reform will be one of the top topics to discuss, he said.

"The law should be administered fairly and impartially in every interaction with law enforcement." Burgess said. "I have personally attended several of the protests in Johnson County and reached out to those protesters to hear their concerns and let them know that we are always open to discussion."

The Bargersville Police Department is another agency not planning any immediate changes. Its officers have not had any issues with police brutality or race, said Jeremy Roll, spokesperson for the department.

"We don’t have the same issues here that would even be closely related to an incident of that nature," Roll said.

But he does believe the Black Lives Matter movement’s concerns with police brutality against Black people are valid, he said.

"People are very upset, and they absolutely have a good reason to be upset," Roll said.

Bargersville is a small police department of just 10 full-time officers. There have been discussions about getting body cameras for the officers, but the price tag for the cameras and data storage is too high for a department of that size, Roll said. There are cameras inside the department’s new Tesla Model 3 the department purchased last year, he said.

Listening to concerns

A few Black Lives Matters protests were organized locally in June. There were several small gatherings at the courthouse in Downtown Franklin, and a large protest in Downtown Greenwood that brought out hundreds of supporters and counter-protesters.

Local police attended all the local protests to provide protection, but also to listen. 

"I just said, ‘Hey, let’s go talk with these folks,’" Cochran said. "How can we have a community partnership if we’re not talking to anyone?"

Laut also had several personal conversations with people who attended the protest in Greenwood. He did not share the details of those conversations, but agrees the death of Floyd was not justified, he said.

"We have known for years about positional asphyxia. I don’t know why, in this day and time, that they kept that man (Floyd) on his stomach with extra weight," said Laut, who has been with the department since the late 1980s. "We do not use a choke hold. I don’t remember that ever being taught here."

Reviewing use-of-force

All of the county’s police agencies review every instance where an officer uses force. Investigations take place internally, unless the officer involved allegedly committed a crime, then the case is reviewed by an outside agency, such as the Indiana State Police, Burgess said. It is a procedure that is followed by all local police agencies.

"If one of our officers shoots someone, we’re not doing that investigation. It’s just not going to happen under my leadership. It will go to the state police," Cochran said.