The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department will take teens found in violation of the city’s youth curfew to a central location where they can access “supportive services” and reunite with guardians, the city announced on July 16.
“The approach is restorative, not disciplinary,” IMPD Assistant Chief Michael Wolley said.
This weekend marks the launch of the new initiative in collaboration with the Office of Public Health and Safety. Once the teens have arrived at the site, which is in an undisclosed location, they’ll be able to connect with mentorship services from youth organizations New BOY, Let Them Talk and Voices Indianapolis.
The WNBA All-Star Weekend is expected to draw crowds downtown this weekend, and Wolley said the pop-up center will likely be set up during other large events.
Earlier this month, the city announced plans to enforce a youth curfew prohibiting teens aged 15 to 17 from being unaccompanied in public between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weeknights. Those hours also apply for teens under 15 on weekends, but teens between 15 and 17 can stay out until 1 a.m.
The curfew itself isn’t new. In the past, it has not been consistently enforced due at least in part to logistical challenges, including staffing constraints and the lack of a central location to take the children who are picked up.
But in the hours following the annual Fourth of July fireworks show, hundreds of unsupervised teens lingered downtown, culminating in a mass shooting that killed Xavion Jackson, 16, and Azareaon S. Cole, 15. Two other teens and three adults were also injured.
IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said police had already confiscated firearms from multiple teens before the shooting. In 2024, the most common charge filed in Marion County’s juvenile court was dangerous possession of a firearm, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“I don’t know how many times I have to say it. We are not your children’s keepers. You are,” Bailey said to media gathered around him during a late-night press conference. “And parents and guardians have got to step up.”
Kids as young as 13 and 14 were charged with gun possession over the Fourth of July weekend, according to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. A total of eight teens and three adults face charges in connection with the downtown mayhem, but no one has been arrested for the mass shooting.
The curfew is a key part of the city’s strategy to reduce gun violence among youth. The Office of Public Health and Safety is also funding programs designed to reduce violence among high-risk young people.
New BOY, Let Them Talk and Voices will speak with teens brought to the center about their lives and decision-making. Leaders from those organizations said they hope to build long-term positive relationships with the teens who are brought in for curfew violations this weekend.
“I believe there’s no correction without connection,” New BOY founder Kareem Hines said. “…This is about the safety of our young people, the safety of our city, but this is also about changing the trajectory of their lives.”
Dr. Heather Savage with Let Them Talk, a youth organization for the Black community, encouraged people who are concerned about violence to mentor kids or volunteer rather than pass judgment.
“Our youths read those comments. Their parents see what we’re saying about them online, under news articles,” Savage said. “We want them to be better people, but as adults, we can be better people.”
The curfew ordinance doesn’t create a criminal offense for the city’s children and teens, but it does grant police the authority to detain them. They will be searched and handcuffed during transport, per protocol, but won’t be restrained while at the center unless presenting a safety risk. Wolley emphasized that curfew violations are a “status offense,” meaning that they don’t show up on a permanent record and don’t come with fines.
Guardians will be contacted to come pick them up. If multiple attempts at contacting parents fail, there’s a possibility the teens will be taken to the Youth Services Center, which serves as the city’s juvenile detention center.
The weekend safety center also doesn’t preclude arrests for teens engaged in criminal activity, the police chief said.
A similar curfew enforcement plan had been announced more than a year earlier after a different downtown Indianapolis mass shooting wounded seven teens. In April 2024, a feud between teens escalated into a gunfight, shining a national spotlight on the city’s struggle to curb youth violence.
IndyStar has submitted a public records request asking for the number of teens cited under the curfew statute over the last two years. That request remains pending. No teens were cited for curfew ordinance alone last weekend, Bailey said on July 16.
Though the City-County Council is considering an ordinance that would create an earlier curfew of 9 p.m., the head of Indianapolis’ police union issued a statement calling that expansion a “shallow and shortsighted approach.”
In the same statement, Indianapolis’ Fraternal Order of Police president Rick Snyder asked state lawmakers to intervene in the city’s gun violence. On July 15, Gov. Braun indicated that he was open to that possibility.
Bailey said he wouldn’t turn down extra law enforcement presence. There have been nearly a dozen shooting deaths over the first two weekends of July. Bailey emphasized that the criminal legal system is only one part of solving the complicated problem of youth violence.
“This is an uncomfortable situation. You should be uncomfortable,” Hines, the New BOY director, said of the center’s creation. But he sees it as an enormous opportunity, too.
“With our community partners, we will now be able to offer resources to those young people that might not have had it before,” Hines said. “And it is our intent for our passion and our genuineness to become contagious.”
Anybody interested in helping out with this weekend’s efforts can contact IMPD.PublicAffairs@indy.gov.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: City to open ‘safe and secure’ site with resources for youth found out past curfew
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
