Biased Based Crimes Against Asians

Various local agencies supporting the Asian Community were invited by the Indianapolis Police Department to participate in the first initial public forum to learn more about the challenges and concerns related to biased based crimes against Asians living in the Indianapolis Community. Council member of Indiana Association of Chinese Americans (IACA) was among the invited attendees.
This event was organized by Officer Randy Diaz, Immigrant Outreach Specialist with the IMPD Community Engagement Office. Captain John Walton, who introduced the panelists, who each spoke briefly emphasizing why they felt increased interaction and communication within the Asian community. The panelists included:
Chief Chris Bailey, IMPD

Prosecutor Ryan Mears, MCPO (Marion County Prosecutor)
Chief Reggie Roney, MCSD (Marion County Sheriff Department)
IMPD Outreach Officer Randy Diaz
IMPD Captain John Walton
From the panelists, the key message to the audience was, that IMPD cares and wants to assure all citizens of Indianapolis are treated the same and fairly. They stressed that they know that Asian Hate Crimes have taken place in our city but are often NOT reported and stressed the importance of all such incidents being reported.
Captain Walton facilitated an open and frank discussion and hear from those in attendance. Understand their concerns, share their experiences, and help provide the IMPD with further information and questions that need to be clarified and incorporated into their Asian Outreach Program. He shared that he did not feel such a program should be designed and driven by the IMPD, a government agency, but community driven.
It was stressed by several attendees that for the IMPD and the Asian community to establish strong supportive relationship as well as trust, IMPD needs to have consistent representations with this community. This could include, attending monthly meetings, participate in festival and cultural events. It was stressed that teaching our children early in school about how to respect the culture and interaction with people of other ethnic races is needed. The IMPD outreach plan is to have several of the public meetings leading up to what they are calling an IMPD Asian Summit Meeting, which will take place in the spring of 2022 at the International Market Center.
There is a HOTLINE to call, and the call is answered by trained social workers to help with hate crime issue, providing resource such as translation. The number is 317-327-5314. If facing an emergency, call 911.