Started.

Good evening, everyone.

It's 5 30 p.m.

on Wednesday, April the 15th, 2026.

We're in the public assembly room of the City County Building.

Welcome to the public safety and criminal justice committee of the city county council.

We'll start introductions of our council members on this committee.

Councilor Bain.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Josh Bain, District 21.

And thank you, Mr.

Chairman Brianne Delaney, District 2 on the north side.

Good evening, Chairman.

Councillor Wells, District 11, West Side.

Thank you, Chairman Jessica McCormick, District 16, West Side.

Thank you, Council.

Top Counselor Boots.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Dan Boots, District 3, Washington Lawrence Townships.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Frank Mascarry, District 19, Southeast Side.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Renee Allen, District 15, the Far East Side.

Thank you, Councillors Lee Wy Robinson, Chair of the Committee representing District 1.

First up, proposal 74, 2026, appoints Brianne Delaney to the early intervention planning council.

Council Delaney.

Thoughts, comments.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I am honored to be appointed by the majority leader of the city county council to be the Democrat uh liaison to the early intervention planning council.

I'm succeeding our uh president Maggie Lewis in that her position on the council and also would be serving with Councillor Anne from the Republican Party.

And um I'm just hoping that I can build on my experience as a deputy prosecutor in um trying to help eliminate child abuse and neglect and juvenile involvement with the legal system.

Um of the things that I've already been tasked with is trying to review the ordinance as it sits in the Marion County um book of ordinances and trying to make sure that we're following state law and that their um goals and objectives align um with state law and the ordinance.

So I've already got my work set out in front of me and I'm honored to serve.

Thank you, Counselor.

Anyone uh on the committee care to speak to proposal 74.

Anyone in the audience care to speak to proposal 74?

Seeing none, it shouldn't any motion.

Most people are probably moved and seconded.

Proposal number 74 for Brianne Delaney.

All those in favor, support by saying aye.

Aye, those opposed.

Motion carries.

Council Delaney.

Um, I have uh spoken previously with our council attorney about this, and I will be abstaining from the vote.

All righty.

Uh the proposal thus passed unanimously.

Up next, proposal 75, 2026 appoints Jasmine Tucker to the Citizens Police Complaint Board.

Ms.

Tucker, you want to come forward, please?

Welcome.

Ms.

Tucker, first of all, thank you for willing to volunteer uh on this all too important board.

So we do appreciate you for that.

Uh we do have your resume in front of us.

Um can you speak briefly uh about why you'd like to be appointed to this board?

Yeah, so my name is Jasmine Tucker, and I appreciate everyone for being here today.

Um there's a few reasons why I'm interested in this um police complaint board.

I would like to say that I've been very adamant for the past year.

Um, showing up consistently, going to board meetings, just showing my interest, um, even here last time, uh the last meeting.

Um, I work closely with youth and families and communities.

I help people navigate cross crisis situations and connect them to resources that they need through the work that I do.

I also have the opportunity to understand what first responders are going through.

Um, as a crisis navigator, I am a first responder as well.

Um, but I've also experienced the system on the community member side.

Um I've had to help relatives and our community members access um resources such as uh felon complaints, and so I think that my lived and professional experience will be a good addition to uh this board.

Um, because of that balanced perspective, I understand the importance of the accountability for the community while also understanding the realities and responsibilities of law enforcement, and as a millennium, I also believe uh that I can help bridge the gap between generations, bringing understanding between those who value tradition, and also um calling for more transparency and trust.

And then lastly, my work across Marion County and other surroundings um counties in the state of Indiana has shown how deeply these systems impact people everyday life, and if selected, I will also approach this board with fairness, integrity, and an open mind.

Thank you so much for your for your comments and for your willness to serve.

Uh does like you'll be graduating here pretty soon with your master's degree, so good luck with that uh in social work.

Um comments or questions from counselors, counselor delaney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and um thank you, Ms.

Tucker.

I just I know that you were here last month, and um I appreciate your willingness and effort to come back.

I think it bodes well for you that you came back twice for us.

I think you're gonna be a good servant for our community.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council.

Additional comments or questions.

Anyone in the audience care to speak to this proposal for Ms.

Tucker?

Seeing no, sure.

Motion will probably move and second it for proposal number 75.

All those in favor by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

Motion carries.

Thank you, Ms.

Tucker.

We'll see you here in a few weeks at our full council.

All right.

Thank you for your willingness to serve.

And up next, the last proposal and then a presentation uh is proposal number 99, 2026, authorized the city of Indianapolis to advance the curfew hours to public safety curfew hours pursuant to IC 31-37-3-4, and chapter 381, section 103 to 105 of the revised code.

And who's speaking from IMPD?

Welcome.

Thank you, Chairman.

How your first few uh few few months going.

It's been eventful.

Eventful?

Eventful.

Very good though.

Well, the summertime is here now.

Yes.

So uh let's make it less eventful.

Let's hope.

Thank you so much.

You want to speak to this proposal 99 for us, please?

Yes.

Uh so I'm gonna speak on uh my perspective of why I feel like we should have the uh emergency curfew enacted and and how did we get here?

Uh last year, following the tragic downtown shooting, uh, the night of July 4th, the early morning hours of July 5th, we lost a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old downtown with five additional people shot.

Uh, two of those five were also juveniles.

Uh since then, IMPD implemented stricter enforcement of the existing juvenile curfew and began staffing what we called then a reunification center.

Uh, we're calling it now a connection center uh during specific weekends.

When a young person is out past curfew or engaged in concerning behavior, arrest is really not our preferred option.

We want a meaningful intervention.

The connection center serves as a safe place where juveniles can be connected with trusted community partners who provide resources, food, and support services.

Parents and guardians are contacted and brought into the conversation because keeping our kids safe is a shared responsibility.

Following the July 4th incident last year, no juveniles were actually brought to the IMPD juvenile reunification center, and no enforcement was needed in 2025.

So far in 2026, only a handful of juveniles have been brought to the connection center.

Parents were contacted, and all were very appreciative of the early positive intervention by INPD and our community partners.

That outcome shows that enforcement and awareness can make a difference in keeping young people safe.

So what are we seeing now?

We're seeing concerning trends in incidents of youth violence.

Incidents involving teens are increasing, particularly during late evening and overnight hours.

And I'll just give you some statistics to compare.

First quarter of 2025, we had 41 homicides.

Of those 41 in the first quarter, three of them involved juvenile victims.

That's about 7.3%.

So far in the first quarter of 2026, we've had 28 homicides, but still three of them have been juvenile victims.

That represents nearly 11% of our homicide victims.

That's about a 4% increase over last year of the number of homicide victims that are juveniles.

So that's a concerning trend.

And I'll I'll just point out that overall our numbers of homicide victims and non-fatal shooting assault victims are down.

Uh year to date, we're down about 31%.

But the concerning aspect of that is that percentage of those victims that are increasingly juvenile.

Well I'll speak to our non-fatal shooting assault victims of the same time period.

First quarter of 2025.

We had 101 non-fatal shooting assault victims.

Of those 101, we had 18 of those that were juveniles.

That's about 17.8%.

So far this year, again, our numbers are down, so we've had 90 nonfatal shooting assault victims, but 20 of them have involved juveniles.

And that's about 22.2% of our non-fatal shooting assault victims that are juveniles.

Additionally, we have some concerning trends across the country.

We had an advertisement here in town at the end of March.

Now we did intervene and proactively address that, and it turned out to be nothing in that case.

But these teen takeovers typically organized on social media.

They result in fights, property damage, gun violence, and at times death.

I'll give you some other examples from across the country.

Typically, when we see these trends, social media doesn't know geographic boundaries.

Word travels very quickly, and our teens we know are very in tune with social media and those trends.

So in Los Angeles in March, March 22nd, more than 100 people, 100 young people took over an intersection.

They basically trapped people that were on a city bus, vandalized the bus with uh spray paint and graffiti, and were setting off fireworks.

In Chicago in April, they had teen takeover of teens jumping and running on cars in Hyde Park, vandalizing and damaging over 30 cars in that neighborhood.

Also in April in Detroit, dozens of teens flooded downtown streets running through the area, and a gun was fired at some point.

On multiple occasions in the DC metro area, the Navy Yard in particular, they've had teen takeovers in that area, preventing local residents and visitors from using the space down there.

It has also resulted in violence and fights.

Just this past weekend.

We had a proactive street takeover detail spinning is what we call it.

And our officers were proactively addressing that activity in our city.

It always picks up when the weather gets warmer, and we had that activity this weekend.

This weekend we arrested a 13-year-old that was out at 1 30 in the morning, was armed with an AR pistol.

This uh 13-year-old was accompanied by a 20-year-old that was armed with a Glock handgun with an extended magazine and a machine gun conversion device.

What could go wrong in that situation?

There's no reason for a 13-year-old to have a gun in the first place or be out at 1 30 in the morning.

So in February of this year, we made several arrests involving juveniles that are related to uh crimes of violence.

We arrested two teenagers for the December murder of a 55-year-old at a gas station on the north side of town.

We also arrested a 16-year-old for a murder that occurred in November of another teenager.

We also arrested another 16-year-old and a 17-year-old for a fatal shooting of a 17-year-old and a non-fatal shooting of another 17-year-old.

During the arrest of that 16-year-old, our officers recovered nine pounds of cocaine, six pounds of fentanyl, four pounds of ecstasy pills, uh 19 firearms, uh, a machine gun conversion device, and uh extremely concerning was the fact that uh three children in that residence were exposed to fentanyl.

And then another, I'll just final example that I'll mention before I move on is in February of this year we did have an officer-involved shooting in which our officers were attempting to stop a vehicle with shooting suspects in the vehicle when uh two 16-year-olds and one 17-year-old that were in the vehicle fired upon the officers, and there were uh firearms recovered in that vehicle, and one of the juveniles had uh a machine gun conversion device.

That happened just before 10 p.m.

So those are just some examples of of what we're seeing here in town locally and what we think is coming based on national trends and intelligence information.

Our priority is public safety.

We owe it to our youth to keep them safe and out of harm's way by using every tool that's available to us to do just that.

In response to what we have seen so far this year and in past summers, we need to intervene early in a non-intrusive way, and provide support to our young people.

Curfew announcements or curfew enforcement allows us to do just that, and an earlier curfew allows us to do that sooner.

We have to use the tools we have, the tools that we know from past experience work.

Keeping young people out of situations where they are more likely to become victims or be involved in violence is a priority and a shared responsibility that I think we all have.

This is about safety, accountability, and awareness for both teens and their parents.

Parents and guardians play a critical role in knowing where their children are and who they are with.

And the earlier curfew provides a clear expectation and helps families make safer decisions.

So some final thoughts.

If we can keep even one family from experiencing loss due to unnecessary violence, our efforts are worth it.

OPHS's work with the elevation grant recipients and promoting uh summer job opportunities in Indy Parks through Project Indy.

It is taking all of these tools and will take all these tools and more to keep our kids safe throughout the summer.

Thank you, Chief.

Um one quick question for me.

You gave up quite a few examples of the um environment that's out there that the men and women of law enforcement do with every day.

Uh so we want to thank them for doing that.

Number one, uh, your staff.

Um secondly, do you think that the curfew uh hours could have prevented any of that or I think it's possible and I have some I have some more data.

Um it's it's really hard sometimes to draw a cause and effect conclusion from data, but I can share the numbers with you just uh for your own uh curiosity.

Uh so before uh the curfew enforcement last about July 18th of 2025, uh there were four homicides involving juveniles uh that occurred during curfew hours.

Uh there were six that occurred outside, so a total of ten uh that occurred before we um began really enforcing curfew and advertising proactively uh that curfew enforcement.

Um, after we started enforcing the curfew, um after July 18th of 2025, we had four.

And so far in 2026, uh that's two.

Okay.

Um, and I know like I said, it's really hard to draw a cause and effect conclusion, but overall, um those numbers have been down after curfew enforcement, but those percentages of our youth involved in violence is increasing, and that's a concern.

So, do I think that curfew hours adjustment is going to solve our youth violence problem?

No, it's just one piece and one aspect that I think we can uh proactively take to address uh what we've been seeing and make one small step to uh toward prevention.

Thank you, Chief.

Commercial question counselors, Council Delaney.

Okay.

McCormick, Council I know, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I know we're gonna talk about the dates, but other than that, different from last year.

So could you just highlight like what's different from the when we um put the ordinance in last year, what we changed, what's different than this, other than that date that we're gonna talk about.

Uh what do you mean as far as the the ordinance, the action that I guess more the what we passed last year when we enacted the curfew when we start, I guess started enforcing it.

There's nothing else changed, right?

To my understanding, it's just an adjustment of the hours uh by two hours, which is the same thing that we did last August.

Right.

So that's I guess that's what I'm asking, right?

Like it's the same process, same thing that we'll be doing.

Okay.

That's that's what that's what I'm recommending.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Councilor.

Uh thank you, um, Chief Terry, and thank you for everything that you and your staff do uh do, and I know one of those police shooting took place out in my district, and I'm glad everyone was okay.

Um, my question to the curfew, just to piggyback off uh uh Mr.

Chairman's question, um, because I know by extending the curfew hours by two hours, um and I know with the summer hours coming up, right?

And we talk about the summer jobs.

Now would these summer jobs be offered in the daytime or would they be offered, you know afternoon, late evening, because when I think about um our teens and I think about crime, crime to me doesn't have a time.

It it can you know, just today I almost seen someone get hurt.

Um and so I just if you can speak to that as you know, because when we talk about curfew, we always identify and not just in curfew.

I just feel as though across the board we identify a problem, but sometimes we don't have a solution.

And so I want to make sure that we even though some of the things that you outlined earlier that was taking place around the country and other cities and you guys are thinking proactively, I want to make sure that we are connecting the dots and you know we identify a problem, but you know, let's continue to build up off of that solution.

Absolutely.

And and I think what we have uh learned was even though we didn't uh take any youth to the connection center or reunification center in 2025, uh we did expand on our our community partnerships uh in that process.

And those community partnerships did play a key role already in 2026 and providing resources to a family.

Uh I can't speak to the the summer jobs hours because it's not uh a program that I'm directly responsible for.

Um, but I do know that there have been conversations uh with community-based organizations and other city agencies about that need uh to provide those safe spaces for youth to gather uh during those peak uh I think vulnerable times, which is you know, the weekend nights, right?

And throughout the summer, it's sometimes the weekdays too, right?

When kids are not not in school.

Uh but I would I would and I don't know if this is really speaking to your question or not, but the there are legal defenses to that curfew ordinance that would never prevent somebody going to or from any job, even if they were out after that curfew.

And the direction that we give our officers on curfew enforcement is really uh behavior-based.

We're not just out uh trying to stop any youthful appearing person for walking down the street.

We are looking for uh disruptive, disorderly, criminal, uh concerning behavior before we uh intervene and and even make an attempt uh to enforce any kind of curfew.

And then again, our you know, for peak times, our real goal is to get to the root issues of why a kid might be out uh unattended or by themselves and uh provide resources through community-based organizations to them and their family.

Okay, do we have a follow-up?

Okay.

Just all of it.

Okay, uh motion to amend um Mr.

Chairman.

Can you turn your microphone on, please?

Uh motion to amend proposal number 99, Mr.

Chairman.

I move to a man proposing 99, 2026 by deleting the language that is strictly through and add the underlying language to read as follow.

Section one, the city county council finds that conditions do exist within the county thereby establishing that the current curfew hours are later than is reasonable for public safety.

Section two, the count the city county council hereby adopts public safety curfew hours as established in Rev Code sections 381-103 through 105.

Section 3 in compliance with Rev Code Chapter 381, Section 105, the implication of the public safety curfew hours shall expire 60 days after this ordinance goes into effect.

Section 4, this ordinance shall be in effect from after is passage by the council and compliance with Indiana Code 36-3-4-14.

Motion on the floor is there a second.

Second.

Uh the second.

Counselor comments.

Comments, uh, counselor Leader Mallory.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, just to help me understand the point of going down to 60 days on this.

I'm just thinking through this, and if we vote on this in May.

That gives us May and June.

And then we'd have to come back and do this again to where if we put budget at 120, we could go May, June, July, August.

And that gets to the summer.

Does that kind of take out some of the repetitive work then of us having to come back and do this again?

And gives IMPD the ability to fully do their job without having to wait on us to act.

What's the point of cutting it in half?

Give me answer.

If you if you know the answer will go to the chief, there was no.

Chief, you want to speak to that?

Respectfully, I would request the longer term uh for that.

Um these trends tend to be something that are I would say longer term for us to really measure uh rather than shorter term, and I think 60 days is is a really tight turnaround for us to see any potential impact.

I would really like to see us uh do this throughout the summer and then evaluate at the end of the summer.

Thank you, Chief.

Uh Councillor McCormick.

Do we Mr.

Chairman?

Do you know, or do we have a reasoning why was there some code or something we're following?

Why we cutting it to 60 from 120?

Because I agree with Leader Maori.

If from today, 60 days is June 14th, which summer's just starting for most some of our kids.

Um 120 days is August 12th, and most of them are back to school by then.

So if we're thinking about the purpose of doing this and the free time that they have, we will be doing this again in June.

Ms.

Pierce, you want to speak to the uh 60 days versus 120.

I can speak on behalf of my conversation with Councilor Allen, who recommended this, and uh because the ordinance technically is supposed to be not supposed to be proactively looking.

The the language of the ordinance, there's supposed to be something a public safety event occurring now that causes the hours to change.

And in my conversation with Councillor Allen, she wanted to see it, you know, and occurring within the within the county versus in Chicago or somewhere else.

So she was looking for things that were happening here in the city currently, and thought that there he did not see enough evidence at that point to justify doing a whole whole summer, plus like I said, the ordinance and the statute particularly say that you're supposed to look retroactively versus proactively.

Thank you.

Counselor Allen, we'll speak to your uh Miss Pierce just answered my question.

Okay, Counselor uh Leader Maori.

Uh I appreciate thanks for your explanation there, uh Council Pierce.

Chief, didn't you just say that we're up on average so far this year for uh just youth violence?

The number of youth that are homicide victims and the number of youth that are uh non-fatal shooting victims is a larger percentage of our overall victims uh than this time last year.

Yes, that's increasing.

Thank you.

I appreciate you uh going into more detail there.

You know, I'm looking at this, and you know, I get that we have to have evidence that you know something's going on, and for in order for us to do this, I think one percent higher than last year is enough evidence for me to keep it at 120 rather than slash it to 60.

So uh I will not be in support of this amendment this evening, and I would encourage my fellow counselors to not support this amendment as well, so we can try to give IMPD the ability to do their job fully rather than ramp up and within 60 days, and then as soon as they're really getting ready to get you know then get out there, get get the job done, we're having to come back and do this again.

Let's give them the opportunity to do their job fully with 120 days, and like counselor McCormick said, uh, that puts us at August 12th, I believe she said, so that gives them plenty of time to get back to school as well and gives us proposal the ability to do its job.

Thank you.

Thank you, leader, counselor Bain.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to uh echo the words of Leader Maury here.

I feel like the chief did a very good job uh explaining the current situation we find ourselves in.

Uh we should certainly celebrate that uh some of our shooting trends and gun violence trends are are are going in the right direction, but it does seem that there's ample evidence to why we need to keep the um uh curved few hours uh at 120 days.

Um, whether or not this is actually working given that you know some of our youth violence trends are going in the wrong direction, it does seem that that's a national trend that maybe we are not immune to.

So I don't see any reason why it would be taking tools out of the tool chest for IMPD.

So I'll be voting no on the amendment.

Additional comments to questions, thank you, Councillor Bang.

Counselor Bain, additional comments or question on the amendment.

Counselor Delaney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, my initial question was really answered by um Counselor Maori's first question, but a follow-up to council Pierce, is there any um guidance in state law that arrange that we have to be between for the timing on this?

No.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor uh counselor Hart.

Yeah, I think we did this last year, or I know we did this last year, but I'm just curious what was that event that occurred that allowed us to the fourth of July?

Okay.

Thank you.

Do I need to answer something?

I'm sorry.

No, they answered it.

It was the fourth of July was the event that was that was just that precedent that occurred that had us moved to this uh 120 days last year.

Yes, sir.

Council McCormick.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh so if we're Council Pierce, we're talking about like that the history, what we're being reactive to, right?

So if we look at the year-to-date trends, and then we look at the annual trends of summer activity for juvenile, right?

Like four issues.

Can we can that be our justification to have it be 20 days that historical data that we have combined with this uh information about the year to date?

Is that sort of so I am not a judge?

So I can just tell you, and there are no cases on this, so I can just tell you that what the language of both the ordinance and the statute say is that the public uh that the hours are later than is reasonable for public safety under the conditions that exist in the consolidated city that exists, not existed or will exist.

Counselor, you good?

Counselor Allen, your um motion.

Uh any more comments about your motion.

The reason why I wanted to um go ahead and do 60 days.

I know we're talking about last year to this year, and as I mentioned earlier, we always talk about a problem, but we never come up with the solution.

And for me, is we have to give these teams something else to do, and we have not done that.

And I never want to play the blame game because I know last year we ran into this problem where everybody was blaming us, the city county counselors, we wasn't doing enough, IMPD wasn't doing enough, parents wasn't doing enough, and community wasn't doing enough.

And when I think about that, this is an all-around community problem for all of us that we need to take a hold of, and that's one of the reasons why I want to pull it back and scale back because we may see something different this year, right?

It may, you know, because each year could be different, even though you see that slight number rise, but it's just not a large numbers, and then two, with a lot of the uh in your in your presentation, and again, I do understand about being proactive, um, but we haven't gotten there yet, right?

And so I never like to speak on things that haven't happened, and so I encourage my fellow um colleagues to support it and let's go back and to go back and evaluate it and let's come up with some solutions for our teams for the sum for the summer months.

Thank you, Councilor.

Counselor Bain.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Again, just want to reiterate, you know, I think if we were all listening to what the chief just said and outlined those examples that were given, I think clearly the atmosphere exists in the city for us to um lower the to reduce the curfew hours.

So I'd hope everyone would vote against this amendment.

And Mr.

President, I would respectfully request a roll call vote.

Thank you, Council.

Counselor Hart.

Yeah, I just want to make sure I'm uh clear that I'm I'm in agreement with my colleagues uh in the front row that this is I mean, we're talking 60 days.

It's I think the prudent thing for us to do as a council body just to make sure that we've got it so we're covered.

Um we can we can dual solution at the same time.

I mean, whatever that looks like with you know, we've got I mean, even spring fiscal coming up between now and then, so if there's you know programmatic ideas that we want to try and think about through that time, we've got time to do it.

But I mean it's a small small price to ask us to do another 60 days um just in the the level of prudency for it.

So uh I'm not supportive of the amendment today.

Thank you, Councilor.

Anyone in the audience could speak to the uh motion to amend proposal number 99?

Commissioner Young, you come forward?

Oh, I thought you were coming up here.

Um I'm sorry, I'll okay.

Sure.

State your name for the record, please.

Excuse me.

I'm sorry, you guys just have to read a statement first.

Ms.

Clerk.

Yes.

Before we open the floor to public comment, we would like to remind committee members and the public of a few ground rules.

So everyone can have a fair chance to speak and be heard.

It is important that we each observe the following rules.

First, each speaker will be limited to two minutes.

Second, any public comments must reasonably relate to the agenda items under consideration.

Third, speakers who stray from the item under consideration or become unduly repetitious, may be asked to move on to their next point or conclude their comments.

Finally, attendees who cause disruptions that prevent the committee from proceeding through tonight's agenda in a reasonably efficient manner will be removed.

Please remember that some types of threatening speech or incitements of violence are not protected by the first amendment at all.

We will deal with those issues if they come up, but we don't think they will.

And now, Mr.

Chair, if a committee member asks for consent to adopt these rules, we can proceed to public comments.

Counselor's consent.

Tucker will come forward, please.

Um, as I stated earlier, I work with children's and families.

And um I can't see your name, but Counselor Allen.

Counselor.

Counsel, Counselor Allen.

Um, I would have to agree with her because when you're working with youth in a community, you will know that they need things to do.

Um, they have a lot of idle time on their hand, and I agree with the atmosphere.

I agree with the increase of the crime rates and a lot having to do with juveniles, but we also do need to give them something to do.

Um, we are investing a lot of time into proactive things when we could be prevent investing our time and money into preventive measurements, um, like engaging in those community-based services, or for example, um, connecting with more partners in the community to get these kids some jobs so they can stay um out these streets and and being um just using their time wisely, especially during the summer.

I do agree it is going to be a situation where if we don't do these things, we're gonna can like get them programming or get them um jobs.

We are going to see an increase in in violence and in crime, but again, it needs to be reevaluated in 60 days so we can even see if this works because what I don't want to happen is what seems to be a disturbance or a crime or what what visually looks like something is causing a youth to be apprehended by law enforcement um just because they're all hanging around the summer and and it's given um it's given it's given leverage to stop these youth.

And I just want to make sure that we are not just preventing, but we have actual solutions in place.

Thank you so much.

There's been a motion on the floor, it's been seconded.

Uh Ms.

Leader Mowry.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just wanted to reiterate and echo what Counselor Hart was just saying earlier is that we can do two things at once.

We can walk and shoe bubble gum at the same time.

We can have this at 120 days, we can work on solutions of creating programs and opportunities for the youth that will give them something to do during these hours.

There's no reason these have to be mutually exclusive.

So I still don't see a reason why we cut this in half.

So uh again, I would encourage my fellow counselors to vote and not supporting this amendment and keeping it as is.

Thank you.

Thank you, counselor.

Councilman Cormack.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh Ms.

Tucker, thank you.

The first two things I wrote when we started this conversation at the top of my paper was proactive and preventative.

So, like you had the way you discussed it, and I literally just wrote walk and chew gum on my paper.

Um, because this is multifaceted, right?

Whether we say it takes a village or you know, we're talking about what organizations can do.

IMPD can do some things, and this is something they can do, right?

So there are other organizations, us as the council, the administration, other departments, other agencies, our community partners that can all do things.

And so this is an issue that isn't answered by one question, one idea.

It's a multifaceted plan, and I think anything that can strengthen that um is something that we can do for our kids.

Thank you, counselor counselor.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I agree with the whole notion that we can implement preventative measures while also having a curfew.

But something that comes to my mind is a mother is really choking me up, but like there's no price that I wouldn't pay to keep my son alive.

And if we can do something really small, we're talking about two hours for 120 days.

If we can do something so small to prevent and I'm like literally emotional about this to prevent the death of another child in our city, I think this is the least that we can do, but I don't want it to be an empty promise.

I think that you know, I'm I was just approved by this committee to the early intervention planning council.

Like this for me, it's not an empty promise.

Like it's coming from a place of care for the youth in our community, and I thank you for standing up and saying that and supporting Counselor Allen and um and bringing that that point to light tonight.

So thank you.

Counselor Allen.

Thank you for your support.

Um and counselor uh Delaney, um, I like that you said this is not an empty promise because everybody knows um that I've been very embedded into our gut our gun violence reduction strategy, been very supportive of the organizations that actually do this work.

And I'm not against the curfew hours, um, is just the hundred and twenty days because when we talk about the connection center, what I don't want to end up happening is something start off so small, and then they get into the system and then it continues to grow.

If we can find other alternatives to help these children are these young teens, that's what I want to do.

Not only that, we do have organizations that have done the you know walk around downtown and you know try to engage the teens.

And also, as I said earlier, it's not just the one person's problem, it's everybody's problem.

And yes, we do want to live in a city that is free and clear of gun violence, right?

And just saving our youth because I've spoken at enough funerals, and I don't want to see another baby or another mother or father have to put their child to you know, bury their child.

So I don't want that.

Thank you for your support, and again, um I encourage my fellow colleagues to support the amendment.

And also, I need to add one more thing.

I'm sorry, when we talk about doing something small, we also have to contact our business partners too to see if they will open up their businesses for our teens.

I'm not gonna call no businesses out, but I did do that last year, and I did not get a response.

And so that's hard.

So counselor Delaney, when you say, Let's do something small, that's what I did.

I tried to reach out to different businesses just to do that, and no response.

And I've have had conversations also.

So if that helps when we talk about doing something small, just know I took that extra step to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Miss Clerk.

Roll call vote on proposal number 99 motion to amend.

Councilor Allen.

Yay.

Councilor Bain.

No.

Councilor Boots.

Nay.

Councilor Wells, nay.

Councilor Delaney.

No.

Councilor Hart.

Hart?

Nay.

Councilor Miss Carrie.

Ms.

Gary, no.

Councilor McCormick.

McCormick, no.

Councilor Mowery.

No.

And Councillor Robinson.

Robinson, yay.

Okay.

Motion fails.

Commercial questions on the proposal number 99 without the amendment.

Councillor Wills.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

And thank you for your amendment.

And the healthy conversation that I think occurred, Counselor Allen.

And thank you, Chief, for your presentation and for bringing this.

I think the data are the events and our system statistically significant and would agree with my colleagues on that.

My comments and questions, Mr.

Chairman, though, are around like how will we help communicate this?

Without sort of maybe an obvious precipitating event, considering it's countywide.

I know IMPD is wonderful in working with our town partners, Speedway, Claremont, and even our donut county partners, Hendricks County and the like.

But really want to make sure we're we're educating parents and teenagers, maybe in the same but different ways.

And and I I think the the communication team is gonna do a good job getting that out.

Um, but really want to make sure I would be remiss, Chairman Boots, if we didn't talk about the opportunities that do exist currently.

Um, parks are hiring, you can work at pools, you can work at golf courses on our rivers on our reservoirs, and I can tell you there's even lifeguard training coming up next weekend, and um kids are gonna be tired by the time nine o'clock hits if they have some of those jobs that pay really well here in the city and connect them to some really awesome opportunities to spend time in community, um, and it's a different way.

I as a parent of a teen make my student be in the streets, but in a way that she's in service doing healthy things with a lot of sunscreen on, and I would encourage us to continue to push our kids into those spaces.

Um we could use some more roller rinks, but that's for a different conversation, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, but would like to ask the chief or even the communications team if there's anything we can do to help spread the word into the communities with school leaders and things as we you know get that kicking.

Um I think it'll take effect right there on May the 4th.

Um so we actually um already have established communication with the schools, and uh there should be a uh message that's shared from me uh to the local uh township principals and um school leaders that they will be then sharing uh with their parents and students as it relates to messaging around curfew, and uh I I do want to just uh I guess emphasize all of the um the legal defenses to the curfew.

Um if let's see here, so they're not in violation of the the statute if they're accompanied by a parent, guardian, or custodian, or an adult that's specified by a parent, guardian, or custodian.

Okay.

Uh that encourages uh families to do things together for one thing, uh which I think is also important.

Um there's also additional things that would be a legal defense to the statute.

Uh, if the child is participating in going to or returning from lawful employment, a school-sanctioned activity, a religious event, an emergency involving the protection of a person or property from an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or substantial damage, an activity involving the exercise of the child's rights protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution or Article 1, Section 31 of the Constitution of Indiana, uh i.e.

freedom of speech or the right of assembly.

An activity conducted by a nonprofit or governmental entity that provides recreation education, training, or other care under the supervision of one or more adults, which is some of the programming I think we've all been referring to throughout the evening.

Or if the child is participating in an activity undertaken at the prior written direction of the child's parent, guardian, or custodian, and the child is engaged, or the child is engaged in interstate or international travel from a location outside of Indiana to another location outside of Indiana, that that one is kind of obscure.

So all of those reasons I think encourage parental involvement in the decisions that they're making as a family or or the decisions of the the teenager or the youth.

Certainly uh our role is to ensure public safety, and if we have uh criminal acts that warrant uh police intervention, we're gonna you know take action in those instances, but uh true curfew violations really warrant a deeper conversation uh that does involve those community partners that we've been partnering with and connect those families to those resources.

Thank you, Chief.

Disant comments, Council Boost.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and thank you, Chief Terry.

What does happen when a child is brought to the um reconnection center?

Are they recorded?

Is there any permanent record made?

No.

No, they're just uh there's like a kind of some brief survey questions, um, intake questions that we ask just about them.

Uh and then that they're really literally uh guided to the service providers uh that are there, and there's uh a spread of snacks and food available for them.

Uh we've provided uh transportation to people in the past, and um uh the the service organizations uh speak directly with the parents and the youth.

Um and really after that point in time, uh the police officers uh we really try to separate ourselves from that because uh of the the important work that can be done from credible messengers in our community so just to confirm they are not put into the system, so to speak.

Correct.

Thank you.

Uh final comments or questions.

Anyone in the audience care to speak to proposal number 99 seeing none, do you chair with any motion on proposal number 99?

Multi probably move and second it.

Um do roll call vote on proposal 99, please, Ms.

Clerk.

Alan.

Nay.

Nay.

I'm sorry, was that nay?

Uh nay.

Thank you.

Bang.

Aye.

Boots.

Boots, aye.

Council Wells, aye.

Councilor Delaney?

Aye.

Councillor Hart.

Aye.

Councilor Muscary.

Ms.

Gary, aye.

Councilor McCormick.

McCormick, aye.

Councilor Mowry.

Aye.

Counselor Robison.

Robinson I.

Thank you.

Motion carries.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, team.

The last item origin of this evening is a presentation uh by Miss Katie Howe, the Indy Hunger Network presentation.

Each of you do have a hard copy in front of you.

Ms.

Howe, you want to come forward.

Thank you all for uh your time tonight and allowing us to be here tonight.

Um my name is Kate Howe.

I'm the executive director of Indie Hunger Network, and I'm here with my colleague Laura Dodds from Purdue Extension Marion County.

And we're actually here to talk about the Indianapolis Food Access Advisory Commission on which we both serve.

Um we have presented about the Food Access Advisory Commission at the Community Affairs Committee in the past, but never to the public safety committee.

Um and so we're glad to be here tonight.

We work very closely with the Office of Public Health and Safety, and so we um think this might be the better place for us to be presenting and um communicating in the future.

So we're really just gonna give you an update on the work of the commission and share with you some things that we would like you to be aware of, some things that we're working on in the community.

And I'm gonna start off and then I'll pass it off to Laura.

Let's see if I can get it to move.

There we go.

So uh the Indianapolis Food Access Advisory Commission was established by ordinance from the City County Council in 2021, and I believe Laura and I have both served on the commission since that time, so we've been around a while now.

Uh it's a 13-member commission.

Some of the members are appointed by the city county council, some by the mayor's office, and some by the uh Marion County agency's Purdue extension, which is uh Laura's position, and then also the um Marion County Department of Health, public health.

Our goals are really broad to promote policies relating to food equity and nutritious food access, which touches a lot of things in the city.

Um we are here to provide independent community-based advice to policymakers, local organizations, and funders regarding food initiatives, and we serve as a way to empower stakeholders and community members to speak out or to think about, talk about policy issues.

So, over the past few years, we've identified five priority areas that we really want to focus our efforts on in the city in terms of improving food access.

The first is the federal nutrition programs, SNAP, WIC, School Meals, and some other smaller programs that we think are important to help feed people in our city and trying to figure out how we can better connect city residents to those programs.

Another idea that we've been working on for a while is developing and sustaining a food hub, and we'll go into each of these in more detail in a minute, but these are just the broad priorities.

Supporting urban are uh urban farms and urban growers within the city, um, creating and maintaining a food equity plan, which uh is about to be released, I think this week, even then uh food waste reduction is a newer priority, one that we haven't delved into too far yet, but something that we think is important for the city.

So I'm just gonna give a little bit of background on the Indianapolis food landscape to give you an idea of why we're working on this, what we're concerned about.

The next few slides I'm gonna show you are data from the Indie Hunger Network, which is my organization, but we work very closely with OPHS.

So this um study that we that I'm gonna be talking about here for a couple of minutes was released at the end of last year.

It was data collected in 2025 in collaboration with Dr.

Shelley Suttles, who's here tonight, uh, who formerly was with Indiana University, now is back working with OPHS and um a longtime collaborator colleague and someone I'm very glad to be working with again.

Uh so she and her colleague Denville Duncan at IU did the study with advice and input from Indie Hunger Network, and it was funded by OPHS and the Central Indiana Community Foundation.

So we talked to residents of Central Indiana, so Marion County and the surrounding counties to look at you know what's the status of food insecurity in our community.

And I hope you're shocked by the number that 40 54 percent of central Indiana respondents experienced some level of food insecurity in the past year.

That's number that um if you look at the USDA data, it's much much higher than those national studies would tell you.

And it's not because food insecurity is higher, much higher here than it is elsewhere in the country, it's because of the way we're measuring food insecurity.

Um a lot of the studies actually interview people and ask them, are you food insecure?

Do your kids have enough food to eat?

And people are hesitant when you're talking to them one-on-one to tell you about their food insecurity, but we used an anonymous online survey that people could respond to.

And the folks that that said that they had experienced food insecurity, it wasn't everybody um saying I'm food insecure today.

It's that at some point within the past year they struggled to put food on the table.

So they might have had to use a food pantry or get help from a family member.

So it's that insecurity around where will the food come from and that financial insecurity that a lot of our neighbors are experiencing right now.

I won't go through all of the data.

You've got the data in your hands, and the full report is on our website, but it's a it's something that we need to be thinking about in our city that these numbers go up year after year after year, and while we don't have control of everything at the city level, there are some things that the city can do to improve these numbers.

I also want to point out that we found the same same level of food insecurity across the region.

This is not an Indianapolis problem.

It's the same in Hamilton County, in Shelby County, across the region.

People are struggling all across the country putting food on the table.

And then we found that there were some interesting patterns.

Households with children were more likely to have food insecurity.

Obviously, fewer income earners in the household and more mouths to feed means you're more likely to have your budget stretched.

A lot of the people we talked to were working families.

I believe that 86% of our respondents were had at least one wage earner in the household.

So these are not people who are unemployed, sitting on the couch and struggling to feed themselves.

These are people hardworking families that just aren't earning enough money to pay their bills and to buy the food that they need.

And if you have struggles with paying your rent, you're gonna pay your rent before you buy food because you have to pay that rent, or you're gonna be evicted, you're gonna be out on the street.

But you can skimp on food, you can buy cheaper food, you can buy less food, you can get help from a community organization to put food on the table, and that's what we're finding people are doing.

Folks who are self-employed, I think that makes sense.

They're more likely to be food insecure.

Folks that are driving Ubers or doing sort of gig work are more likely to have struggles with consistent food supply.

And then, as I mentioned before, it's not just city, it's uh rural communities and suburban communities as well that are experiencing food insecurity.

And then just briefly, this will be a little hard to see on the screen, but you'll be able to see it better on your handout.

We collect Indie Hunger Network collects data every year on where the meals are coming from.

So, what programs and uh organizations are providing food to our community and what percentage of the food comes from those sources.

Um you can see at the top right that this was data from 2024, so 205 million meals provided in the food assistance system just for Marion County, and half of that came from SNAP.

And that I'm gonna tell you in a minute what's happening with SNAP right now.

So keep in mind we rely very heavily on SNAP, and whether or not you think that we should be the federal government should be feeding people, it is, and that's where the food historically has come from, and we are now cutting back on those programs substantially.

Um, the next biggest source is that um orange chunk, which is the school and summer meals.

Um that includes both the summer food service program and the Sunbox program, which was in operation at that time.

Um, and then uh there's a few other programs, federal programs, WIC, the TFAT program, which is commod USDA commodities that are distributed from Gleaners Food Bank to food pantries, um and then a few other smaller senior feeding programs.

If you add all that together, that's three-quarters of the food supply coming from federal government programs that are administered by the state of Indiana.

And even I I assume many of you have been to Gleaners Food Bank, uh, their chunk is 14%.

So uh think about how huge that place is and all the food that goes through there, it's five football fields of food, and it's still a small sliver of the pie.

And so we can't just expect that the charities are gonna make up for the federal programs that are getting cut.

So this is data that just uh arrived last week, looking at what's happened with SNAP participation as the programs have been cut.

So last year, the one big beautiful bill act that was passed in the summer made substantial cuts to SNAP program, and those cuts have been rolled out sort of in stages.

So some of those things got implemented in the fall, some got implemented earlier this year, some have not yet been implemented and are on the way.

So this isn't to the bottom yet.

Um since August 2024 in Indiana, SNAP participation has dropped by 11%.

And I just told you that we had 54% of our residents in our community who are experiencing food insecurity.

So it's not dropping because people are doing okay and they don't need help with food.

It's dropping because we've put more and more restrictions on the program made it harder to access SNAP and people are falling off because of increased work requirements.

For instance, one of the things that went into effect is people who are homeless now have to work in order to get SNAP.

If you're homeless, you've got a lot of challenges, and getting to work is probably not top of your list.

And so we're adding layer and layer of restrictions that make it harder for people to get help with food.

And then if you look here, you will, I'm sure you all heard about the government shutdown and the impact on SNAP.

SNAP benefits were not going out the door during the government shutdown last fall, and you can see the more dramatic drop in SNAP participation during that time, and it hasn't bounced back because people fell off the rolls because they couldn't get approved during that time, or they thought, well, it's not worth it.

I'm not going to be able to get this, I'm not going to spend the time.

It's a very arduous process applying for SNAP.

You have to produce bank statements, you have to produce pay stubs.

We have an asset limit in Indiana, so you have to prove that you have less than uh $2,500 in your bank account in order to be able to get SNAP.

So there are lots and lots of hurdles for people to get approved, and some people just quit trying.

So I want to talk about a solution now that I've talked about all the problems.

So Indie Hunger Network has a program called Fresh, which is the Food Resource Services Hub.

We started this program two years ago with ARPA funding that came from the city.

Thank you very much through the Office of Public Health and Safety.

And the idea was to give one-on-one assistance with people applying for SNAP who want to get connected to WIC, who need to learn how to sign their kids up for free school meals, who want to know how to find a food pantry or where they can get a free meal, any other food program that might be available to them.

And so we actually have people come into our office, they meet with our one of our food resource navigators who provide information on all of those things.

And the goal is to remove as many barriers as we can with people finding and accessing food by giving them that one-on-one help with application and finding locations.

It's an app that we Indie Hunger Network developed with the Office of Public Health and Safety many years ago now.

And so some people just use Community Compass.

They don't need to come in and talk with us, but if they have more complicated needs or they have low literacy or technology challenges, those are the folks that we see that come in for that extra help.

So in 2024, with the ARPA funding, we had two full-time and one part-time employee.

And we were in the first year that we operated, we served over 3,700 visitors, gave out 546 bus passes, provided 6,400 meals through emergency food distribution.

You can see all the data there.

In 2025, the ARPA funding was gone, and so we had to dramatically scale back the program.

We applied for grant funding and just we're not successful in telling that story at that time.

And so we've been kind of hobbling along with one part-time person.

So that's why the numbers have dropped off.

But that one part-time person is doing a lot of work, and he helped a thousand people on his own last year.

We helped people apply for SNAP.

The documented SNAP results at the bottom is not just people that we helped apply, but people we were able to call back and hear from them that they actually got SNAP benefits.

So we we try to reach out to folks after we've helped them with an application.

They don't always pick up the phone, but we know that we're um we're making a difference with the people we're helping to apply.

Um I mentioned community compass.

So this is the you know, a smaller number of people that Fresh is helping, but it's the people with the highest needs, and a lot of folks are just going straight to community compass.

So last year community compass was used 187,000 times.

We saw a dramatic spike during the government shutdown, so we knew people were going there to find help.

Um that was um those uses were from over 54,000 unique individuals, and average use is 3.44.

So people are using it and they're coming back, they're finding it helpful.

Um, I'm gonna pass it off now to Laura who will talk about the food hub.

Hello, everyone, thank you again for letting us a little bit more.

I need to turn that on, sorry.

Um, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the concept of the food hub as it is one of our priorities.

I'm a Mac user, so I don't even understand this.

Um so if you're not if you don't know what a food hub is, it's a hub where food is aggregated from the community.

It allows small growers and mid-sized growers to add their food to other folks' food so they have enough food to potentially serve schools and institutions.

So they're aggregating their food to get it into the community.

It increases the likelihood that folks can eat that local food, that schools can purchase that local food, and it increases the opportunities for small and mid-sized growers to continue to sustain their business, which can be difficult, especially in urban settings.

So that is one of our priorities that we've been working on.

This is just a little graphic.

Our colleague from Jump In for Health put together, but it gives you a little bit of a an understanding of how food how the food comes in and then how the food goes out.

There's been some progress with the food hub in Central Indiana.

Right now there's a proposal for 20,000 additional square feet for storage and distribution and partnership with a bunch of community organizations.

To do that, it will be four million dollars, they're estimating to develop and build out that food hub.

I don't know that they've started actively fundraising for those dollars yet.

So yeah, that's you'll hear more about that as that program continues.

A little bit more about urban farms.

It's our role in the commission to serve as a policy advocate.

Our goal is to hear from the community voices about the problems that they're facing in their neighborhood and bring that to you at the council.

So we have some our friends from the Indie Food Access Coalition here who meet with us and tell us a lot about what they're experiencing and their knowledge in the community.

And our hope is to be able to bring those policies and programs in front of the council and others to help support urban farms.

Those things include everything from the challenges that local growers have in attaining land, the financial sustainability.

It doesn't really pay well to produce small amount of produce and livestock.

Labor and workforce limitations that were they face, whether that's wages or just finding the part-time staff to do that work.

It's seasonal often, which also creates limitations.

That we are in a position that we hope to come educate the council about how it's impacting them.

And then market access at Purdue Extension, we do programs that help educate folks on how to take their products, their produce to market.

So that's just something when you think about the development of urban farms and why that's a priority for the commission.

We also, as Kate mentioned earlier, um, are committed to creating and maintaining a food equity plan, which will be released in April here in the next week.

Um, and our the concept of that is culturally appropriate food and recognizing just small things like what we consider healthy might not be nutritious.

What your grandma considered healthy when she put it on your plate might not actually have been healthy at all.

Um we have a lot of refugees and other folks in our city who aren't used to the food that we eat here or grow here.

So we're really looking for ways to make sure that people have equitable access to culturally appropriate foods.

Some of the things that will be released in the equity plan include the funding priorities, the capacity building needs, policy change as it relates to summer and school lunches as well as worker wages, and community engagement.

The equity plan was utilized community voice and all of its research.

But there are other cities in the country that are doing great things with food waste reduction.

We have lots of opportunities in Indianapolis to improve our food waste reduction programs.

So we're looking forward to presenting that as we continue to develop with the word of and the voice of the community on what they want to see and how we as commissioners can bring that forward to you guys to consider.

I think that's all we have.

Any questions from my colleagues?

Yes, Councillor Bilaney.

Thank you, um, Chair.

Just wondering, I know at the very beginning you said that there's uh appointees from the city county council.

Could do you know who who those folks are?

I'm one of them.

Uh great.

So I think when the commission for first was started, the staff of Office of Public Health and Safety suggested nominees from organizations or different level areas of expertise.

Um I th it's outlined a little further in the ordinance, which I don't have in front of me, but um my role is representing sort of the food, the hunger, food and security space.

Um so that is the area that I was nominated for and appointed for.

I believe Julie Burns from Jump In for Healthy Kids was also appointed by the council, but I don't know if um one of our folks at OPHS couldn't remember the who who is appointed by the council.

Councillor Lee.

Oh, she's good evening, council.

I'll keep it brief.

Um uh Alexis Weaver, Deputy Director of Public Health for the Office of Public Safety.

Um, just wanted to acknowledge there's a number of 13 total um that have various appointments originating from either the mayor's office or council.

There are also a couple of vacancies, so we will get you a whole list of who is currently serving, what their term when it expires, and then any vacancies that now exist.

That would be great.

I'm just interested more in the governance of it, and I was looking at the ordinance and things like that.

So thank you.

Absolutely, thanks.

Counselor Lee.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that, Madam Vice Chair.

Um, this was very dense, and this is very, but I've I've heard this presentation being on other committees as well, and so this is really um refreshing though to hear from sort of the public safety space.

So kudos to you and the team and the good work that Purdue Extension does and things like that, especially with our schools.

I think our schools um own land that I think could really dovetail into some of these projects, especially some of these urban farms.

Um, and students are actually in school when a lot of the harvest is happening, and um, you know, we're waking up our gardens right now, a lot of us um too, and so that time really can be better utilized, I think, by our students as well.

Um, but I want to go back and underscore um the the data that you highlighted at the very very beginning.

So I think it's like slide um three or four with the pie chart.

When was the data collected for that?

Like what were what was the time frame?

The the data were collected from February to April of 2025, so that's before any of these new SNAP restrictions uh went into effect.

Oh man, and that's kind of what I was afraid of, Madam Vice Chair.

I think the government shut down not only like impacted SNAP, but I think food insecurity became exacerbated.

And as a parent, I was kind of joking to myself, like working families, households with children, and you know, teenagers, some of you can really eat a lot, and it's so expensive, and groceries have just exponentially um you know gone out go on gone through the roof, and so I know that this has just really put a really hard strain.

So it doesn't surprise me to see that data from when the when the government was shut down and people having to reach out multiple times for support.

I think the one last fall was more almost 40 days um long, and then another one more recently.

And we do have a lot of federal workers here and families who are impacted.

So thank you for bringing this to us um today to this particular committee, and please don't hesitate to let us know how we can continue to support you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Councillor Hart.

Thank you.

So the one thing I want to dive into is a conversation that I had with uh another community leader in regards to this and and Medicaid, because they really came at the the same time, the same requirements come at the same time.

Um you mentioned one of the three qualifications earlier, which was a work requirement.

Uh there are other opportunities for people too, which include uh volunteer work.

And that's the part that I wanted to dive into, and I think that I'm glad to see Director Merkley here because I think we have an opportunity as a city, and it's something that we as a council should be considering.

But um there's a lot of uh service providers within the city that need a ton of volunteer help.

And where there's an opportunity for I think the city and you potentially the Office of Public Health and Safety is helping to aggregate those service providers, and we already do to some extent, but being able to then connect individuals who need to either get in volunteer hours or some sort of hours to be qualified for these benefits, but utilizing the city as that aggregate function to connect individuals to service providing opportunities, and I think that can help folks get the hours they need to be qualified for volunteers to ultimately get SNEP or whatever the Medicaid benefits required, but um there are things we can do, and you know, those are very low-cost things that we can do to connect people and make sure that they're getting um some of the requirements met if they're not the work requirements.

And I think that can help folks get the hours they need to be qualified for volunteers to ultimately get SNAP or whatever the Medicaid benefits required.

But there are things we can do, and you know, those are very low cost things that we can do to connect people and make sure that they're getting some of the requirements met if they're not the work requirements.

Thank you.

That's a great idea.

Does anybody else have any questions, concerns?

Anyone from the public like to speak?

Kim.

We got one person.

Hi, so Harrison Jacobo, and I'm part of the Anya the Annapolis uh food coalition.

Um so one of the things that we talked about was uh, for example, with uh counselor heart was a conversation we had about was uh how do we do volunteers one of our conversations was about how do we aggregate um aggregate um volunteer opportunities to help supplement out these these opportunities with with other organizations and tying that into public safety is uh for Maya is a good idea because we were talking about earlier in the public safety issue issue with uh students and you know young adults is that there's not any opportunities for these kind of things.

So, you know, with uh with the idea of having the ability to kind of like volunteer with food organizations, either that from the growing side all the way up to the volunteering side with the food banks, things like that, gives a lot of opportunities so that we could have you know more of an integrated where people learn more about what their food comes from, they learn more about working with the community.

So I think that the idea of if we really want to, you know, work with you know, prevent, which again, I think that intervention is what uh one of the the chief was talking about was interventions and what they what the what they focus on, and I think that intervention starts before before they're out in the street, it starts you know in your community, and how do we embrace community?

Well, one of the big things is urban farms that there's a lot of opportunities at Flanner Farms that does these kind of programs where they have at-risk children who come in who've either you know serve time or had some you know some issues, and they will then be trained with an ag license and have all those opportunities as well.

So tying the food in with the idea of safety, I think is a is a perfect idea because you know, I you know, I kind of ascribe to the uh maslow hierarchy of needs, it's you know, food and shelter, and you know those being one what one of the two big ones is if you're hungry, then you're more likely to go out and try to find food, and how do you find food?

Well, when you know you are down in your luck and you have nowhere else to go.

I mean, sometimes you know it's violence that that takes place there.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Would anybody else like to speak to this presentation?

Well, I'll just like to add one more thing.

Um, I am so excited to see the development of the urban forms um because I do think that this would take care of some of this uh food scarcity that we often talk about um in different areas of the city.

So anything that we can do to support this, I started having this conversation last year or so just to see it roll out um and you guys are looking into this.

Just know that I'm very supportive of anything that you all need when it comes to urban farming.

Um, and also thank you.

You uh this office has appeared at a couple community events that I have uh partnered with my church on uh for the last couple years.

So thank you for uh all that you do in that area.

If no one else has any more questions or um concerns for the Indy Hunger team, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.