New Police Chief Christopher Bailey talks about goals for Indianapolis
Christopher Bailey, a 25-year IMPD veteran and former interim police chief, was announced as the new police chief by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett.
New leadership is at the helm of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department as Christopher Bailey has been named police chief.
The department recently announced two new deputy chiefs. Catherine Cummings and Michael Walley, who were deputy chiefs of the department, have been promoted to the rank of deputy chief.
In an interview with IndyStar on Wednesday, Cummings and Worley answered questions about their backgrounds and goals for their new roles. Questions and the deputy chief’s responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
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New Deputy Chief Cummings previously focused on mental health issues in the city
Mr. Cummings has been with IMPD for approximately 25 years, working in nearly every area of the department.
She worked as a uniformed officer, homicide detective and department spokesperson for the East Precinct, supervising young officers. Mr. Cummings also helped develop the Department of Behavioral Health/Mobile Crisis Assistance Team (MCAT) program.
Cummings was a board member of Mental Health America of Indiana, Mental Health America of Indianapolis, and a member of the planning committee that worked to open an assessment and intervention center at the Community Justice Campus in Indianapolis.
She was the first woman to be appointed Major in the Investigation Division and served as Commanding Officer of the IMPD Training Academy. She was also Deputy Director of Training, Policy and Supervision.
In his new role, Mr. Cummings will oversee IMPD’s administrative functions, training programs, community outreach, recruitment and retention activities, and modernize its transparency processes.
What keeps you motivated, especially with the many challenges that come with working in law enforcement?:
cummings: This is a rewarding job. Although it is a difficult job, it is still an important job. There are times when it’s fun to work. This allows you to keep your mind fresh and make sure you’re implementing best practices and improving.
I fully believe in this work. We need talented, motivated people who want to continue this work. That’s what keeps me going and I love Indianapolis. We have many good people who live here and deserve to live in a safe community.
What goals do you have in mind as you take on your new role?
cummings: As the new director said last week, it’s the job of everyone in the department to continue combating violent crime, to recruit new people to come into the agency, and to retain the people we do have. Of course, those are my goals as well.
My goal is to help the new Secretary modernize policy and technology, and continue to modernize training. We also want to increase the transparency of the department. Part of my responsibility is to develop two new areas structurally.
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One involves developing a formal strategic plan for the police department. It helps complete and solidify our identity. So executives feel like we’re all working toward the same common goal, and we know what that goal is.
Another new task for me is to streamline and standardize the areas of technology, data, and transparency. We need to decide what it all looks like and how we can modernize it. We want to make it easy for the public to get the data requests they need, and preferably know their police department at the push of a button.
Why is it important that someone with a background in work related to mental health issues fills your role in the department?
cummings: Finally, as a society and as a government body, we can now talk openly about mental health and mental health challenges. Unfortunately, many people with mental health issues may not have the appropriate resources they need.
We have finally come to the realization that many people fleeing are not necessarily violating public safety or the law, but that many of them are people in trouble and need our help. We may not be the best resource, but we are often the first.
We have worked hard in the city to make more resources available and educate staff on what to look for to identify people who are struggling with their mental health. We continue to improve it, expand our resources, and really pave the way for people who need help to find the help they deserve.
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We’ve done a great job of training our police officers and raising their awareness. Hopefully, we can do a better job of steering people away from prison and the criminal justice system and toward treatment and resources.
It’s already deeply ingrained in our agency, but being in this position allows me to continue that progress for our agency and to help our communities who are struggling with the help they need. You can only get people.
Wally worked on youth violence issues in the city before being appointed deputy chief.
Wally joined IMPD in 2006 and served as a patrol officer in the Northwest District, where he remained until 2011.
He has also worked as a detective, community officer and recruiter for the Youth Violence Reduction Team. Worley said he was promoted to sergeant in the North District in 2006 and then promoted to the cadre of the Northern District Commander.
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In 2018, Worley was promoted to lieutenant in charge of the department’s public affairs office and then appointed commander of the North Region. By 2021, Woolley earned the merit rank of captain. Last year, he became deputy operations director, responsible for overseeing the patrol and special operations division.
He also served as a member of the Crisis Negotiation Unit for five years.
What keeps you motivated, especially with the many challenges that come with working in law enforcement?:
Wally: This is where my heart is. This job allows my purpose and passion to intersect. That means I feel like I belong here. Our mission is simple: provide safety for the public. With that comes some challenges, but none that can’t be overcome. I have a passion for people. It’s a place where I feel at home.
What goals do you have in mind as you take on your new role?
Wally: Coming from the operational world, my focus was on equipping police officers with the necessary equipment and advancing their mission to reduce crime. At the end of the day, there are just a few basic things you need to do. We must not only continue to reduce crime and develop our workforce to provide the best possible service to our citizens, but we must also find ways to engage and have conversations with our communities.
We do a really good job of engaging with people who want to engage with us. The challenge I want to pose there is how can people get into rooms that may not be very receptive? So we need to build really lasting relationships.
As a former detective on the Youth Violence Reduction Team, what can the department do to reduce youth violence in the city?
Wally: I think engaging the community is something we all need to focus on. There is no doubt that our teens are becoming more and more active. We need to find creative ways to engage them. We urgently need to think about how we can stop some of the conflict and violence that is happening now.
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I think a lot about how big this world is, and I think social media has made it so much smaller. When I was a kid, we didn’t have the pressure of social media to have everything we did on video. These children live in a world where the mistakes they make can be amplified. Any conflicts or conflicts they have can be amplified.
It is important to identify and partner with organizations that have the capacity to provide some kind of response to the issues children are facing.
Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.
