Swift & Certain - Volume II, Number 2, 2004

Enlisting the Resources of Probation and Parole

Building on the momentum gained from its early participation in the Community Prosecution and Weed and Seed Programs, Marion County, Indiana, has seamlessly incorporated partnerships developed under these initiatives into Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) to build a multi-agency approach to reduce gun crime in Indianapolis and the surrounding communities. By recognizing and capitalizing on the unique resources and talents of its many law enforcement-related agencies, including probation and parole, Marion County has successfully expanded the traditional “lever-pulling” approach of notifying high-risk individuals of the severe consequences of continued involvement with firearms while at the same time providing these individuals with access to legitimate community services, including job opportunities.

Marion County has utilized an aggressive, proactive path of multi-agency warrant enforcement sweeps and community-focused meetings to reach chronic offenders and other high-risk potential firearms offenders. In essence, the community has formed an agency coalition to inform offenders that gun crime within Marion County must stop or the community will respond with swift and comprehensive measures. These measures include fast-track prosecution, collaboration between community groups and law enforcement to locate witnesses, and removal to a remote federal prison. This approach has yielded several benefits: a street-level understanding of the immediate consequences of gun crime, increased insight by law enforcement agencies regarding patterns or trends in criminal activity, and community activism targeting gun crime.

Warrant Enforcement

The process of warrant enforcement, in and of itself, is not a new means to reach gun crime offenders or potential offenders. Marion County’s application of this tool, however, is combined with a focused interpretation of incident-related data to surgically direct where and how to strike. Law enforcement’s calls for service and incident reports are strategically mapped to determine local “hot spots.” In addition to the traditional compilation of offender criminal histories, detailed records of homicide suspects, associates and victims are maintained by the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP) and are available to law enforcement on a secure web site. Every week a new “hot spot” list is generated based on these data, including a compilation of suspects’ identified criminal associates, to assist law enforcement in tracking criminal activities and individual or gang movement trends.

Marion County has also adopted an innovative approach to expand the boundaries of traditionally involved parties to bring a “no tolerance” message regarding gun crime to offenders, potential offenders and the general public. Representatives of the media frequently ride along on warrant sweeps and report their findings to their respective audiences. It is not uncommon to see news coverage of law enforcement officers serving warrants on probation violators almost in real time. Crime Stoppers representatives are enlisted to hand out lists with the names or photos of individuals of concern to law enforcement, thereby directly engaging community members in the process of locating offenders or their associates. This effort helps to assure the public that law enforcement is swiftly interceding in the problems within their communities at the grassroots level.

The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office is routinely involved with these organized warrant sweeps. Typically, both a deputy prosecuting attorney and a paralegal from the Street Level Advocacy Division are present to respond immediately to any legal issues which may arise during the sweep. Community-based prosecutors are assigned to every geographic division within the county, allowing community members to recognize and forge strong connections with these prosecutors beyond the courtroom. Their presence sends a clear message to the community that the prosecuting attorney’s office is committed to reducing gun crime in their neighborhoods.

Notification Meetings

In addition to focused warrant sweeps, law enforcement works with the Superior Court of Marion County Probation Department to target probationers or parolees at risk of involvement with gun crime. From this partnership, two distinct types of “lever-pulling” style meetings have developed. One is geographically based in response to specific identified violence, and the other is “associate based,” where violence is tied to an identified group or gang rather than a geographic area. These meetings are routinely held every two weeks. Those invited to an “associate based” meeting are selected by their status as an identified associate of either a victim or suspect involved in a violent crime.

Invitees who are on probation or parole are pre-screened for drugs, typically one week prior to the meeting. Data collected from arrests in 2000 revealed that 66% of adult male arrestees tested positive for drug usage, primarily for marijuana or cocaine. Those with positive drug tests or open warrants do not leave at the conclusion of the meeting.

During both types of meetings, attendees hear from members of the community—victims or their families, faith-based leaders, employers, local and federal firearms prosecutors, and members of law enforcement—and learn about alternatives for education or employment as well as the consequences, through federal and state prosecution, if they choose to continue to be involved in gun crime. Some of the chairs throughout the meeting room are purposely kept empty and display photographs of recently killed or imprisoned probationers and parolees, or toe tags with the names of homicide victims. This material has also been presented in a video montage format to the group. Typically, the final speaker for the evening is a probation officer who reads the names of those who are free to leave the meeting. Those who are not dismissed are immediately taken into custody. Their failure to leave the meeting is a message that quickly reaches their associates.

Adding the probation department as a member of Marion County’s PSN Task Force provides law enforcement with a new level of information regarding potential firearms offenders. With buy-in from the judiciary, standard conditions of adult probation require probationers to permit authorized representatives from the probation department, in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies, to enter their residence and to search their person, vehicle or property at any time. Information gathered at these spontaneous home visits frequently includes identification of probationers’ associates and vehicles, gang movement or trends, and other relevant intelligence regarding growing “hot spots” within the community long before violent crime escalates.

Practical Tips for Warrant Sweeps and Conducting Meetings

When planning a warrant sweep, it may be helpful to narrow the focus of targeted probationers, if possible, to members of a specific gang, or juveniles with firearms involvement, or others at especially high risk.

This focus then becomes the natural foundation for the later “lever-pulling” meeting and helps identify community members who should address the meeting. In preparation for the meeting, remind speakers of how much time they are allotted and the purpose or theme of the meeting. The Marion County PSN Task Force also finds it helpful to survey the meeting participants to ascertain what was most beneficial to them. Results are used to plan future meetings.