Gary city attorney Rodney Pol, left, and ISP Supt. Doug Carter

State police upset by tone of council members reviewing changes to Gary Police Dept.

Contributed By: The 411 News

The difference has been like night and day in the Gary city council’s public safety committee hearings on the changes to the Gary Police Department proposed by Mayor Jerome Prince and his partnership with the Indiana State Police.

Two hearings have been held. The first was on Wednesday, August 31 and the second hearing on Wednesday, September 7.

At the September 7 hearing, things weren’t heading “in a positive way” for ISP Supt. Doug Carter, who had sat for hours in the audience listening to councilmen Clorius Lay and Bill Godwin grill city attorney Rodney Pol about rule changes for the police civil service commission. Carter’s sentiment that the discussion was turning into a debate over “semantics” got a retort from Councilman Clorius Lay, “so you think it’s b.s. for me to ask questions.”

For almost 3 hours, Councilman Lay led the debate challenging two ordinances changing police commission rules – adding proxy voters and redefining the quorum for commission decisions. Lay is an attorney and served for a number of years as the police commission’s legal adviser.

“Does ISP have proxy voters?” Lay asked ISP Major Jerry Williams, who heads the task force assigned to Gary. His answer was "no."

Things were different at the first public safety committee hearing the week before, where the committee heard 10 of the seventeen ordinances proposed by the administration and ISP to reform the police department. Only 1 of the ordinances sparked at most 15 minutes of discussion and comments from the council and audience members.

At the start of the September 7th meeting, public safety committee chair Ron Brewer said there would be time at the end of the meeting to review ordinances heard the week before. He had scheduled two meetings to hear all 17 ordinances. Only the 2 police commission ordinances were reviewed in this 3½ hour meeting.

Of the 17 new rules waiting for council approval, eight govern disciplinary actions for police officers. Mayor Prince had told the earlier public safety committee meeting that antiquated operating procedures are handcuffing the department. “The police chief must have the ability to remove officers from service for a reasonable amount of time.” Currently, the chief can only suspend an officer for 5 days. Any more than that, the chief has to get approval from the police civil service commission.

The police commission has the final say in disciplinary actions and can overrule the chief. It’s a policy the administration also sees as handcuffing the police chief, yet there is no way around it.

A new rule allows the chief to immediately terminate an officer but must notify the police commission within 10 days. If the officer doesn’t appeal to the commission, the termination stands.

New rules will affect the police commission in other ways, too. No longer will the commission have the responsibility of interviewing, testing and performing background checks for police candidates. Proposed changes give those duties to the chief.

Five ordinances remain for review. Four change rules for disciplining officers; the fifth is a rule change for restoring suspended officers to duty. Committee chairman Brewer has scheduled a third public safety hearing for September 14th.

Ordinances take three readings in the council before an up or down vote. The public safety committee hearings are the first reading.

Story Posted:09/10/2022