INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has launched a new website for people to access crime data across the city. 

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Transparency Website is updated daily to give a granular view of the thousands of incidents officers respond to every day. 

IMPD Chief Chris Bailey hopes the website can be a tool that builds transparency and trust, while challenging misconceptions surrounding some neighborhoods. 

“We have entire neighborhoods and zipcodes that are misidentified as violent places,” Bailey said. “The narrative that downtown Indianapolis is unsafe is the biggest one that gives everyone heartburn. It’s just not true.”

The website provides maps showing calls for service, locations IMPD officers have filed police reports, and traffic incidents. 

Other data is displayed through interactive dashboards, like police use-of-force. The use-of-force dashboard lists the amount of incidents, the type of force used, and how the numbers compare to recent years. IMPD officials say they didn’t include a map of use-of-force incidents to avoid impacting the investigation.  

The traffic dashboard, which features a map of traffic incidents and aggregated data on demographics of the people involved, is something community organizers have wanted accessible for years. 

“To now have that data updated on a daily basis paints a very vivid picture of what’s happening within our department and allows our community to respond in a way we feel is most accurate,” said Josh Riddick, community organizer and advocate for the Black Church Coalition.

IMPD officials say the website withholds identifying victim information. The crime maps do not give specific addresses, only a street and block number.

At the bottom of each page of the website, people are invited to click the “Tell Us What You Think” page. Selecting that page will take users to a form to provide feedback about the department or a specific officer. 

“This is the people’s police department,” Bailey said. “And we want them to be able to see not only what is going on internally, but externally.”

The website was built with funding from the Indy Chamber, JPMorgan Chase, and the Indy Public Safety Foundation. IMPD officials told News 8 any future updates or expansions would require additional funding.

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