IMPD Police Chief Calls Police Department Paramilitary Organization

The incompetent boob who serves as Chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told members of the City-County Council Public Safety Committee that he runs "a paramilitary organization," a faux pas that appeared to go straight over the heads of the esteemed members of our city council who sit on this committee.

Hite's comments came in response to comments made by Councilor Leroy Robinson (D) explaining why he opposed the public safety tax increase just enacted by the council to support the hiring of more police officers. Robinson correctly pointed out that we don't have a taxing problem but a spending problem, noting that in the short period of time he has been on the council, the city has spent $286 million for private development, sports and entertainment and parking garages. Fellow blogger Pat Andrews summarizes Robinson's comments here.

Hite responded that "as a 36-year veteran of law enforcement", he has "never in my career seen public safety politicized the way it's been politicized." Again, there's that false argument that you are being political whenever you oppose raising taxes. Hite continued, "We have historically been a paramilitary organization . . . and we serve whoever sits in that chair . . . I don't know what we would do if we would do if we had to go to battle and we had to make a determination based on past practices whether we wanted to go into battle . . . I am a soldier in an army." Yes, our police chief actually believes the police department he runs is a paramilitary organization. I realize a lot of critics of police departments around the country complain that they have become too militarized, but it's quite shocking to hear a police chief of a major municipal police department describe the police department he runs as a paramilitary organization.

Hite has never had any formal police training. When he talks about his 36 years of law enforcement experience, he's counting many years he worked as a body man for former Baltimore Mayor Donald Schaefer (D). He never went to a police training academy or received a formal education of any sort; rather, he got grandfathered in to the Baltimore Police Department through politics. The only thing anybody in Baltimore remembers him for is the guy who informed Mayor Schaefer that the Colts  had just packed up and moved during the dark of night to Indianapolis. Former Public Safety Director Frank Straub brought Hite to Indianapolis to work as a deputy public safety director as part of his diversity initiative. When Paul Ciecieslski was axed as police chief, Ballard tapped Hite to become the new chief, a role he had to wait many months to assume formally because our incompetent mayor failed to realize that Hite lacked the statutory requirements for being a police chief in Indiana. Hite got a waiver from the statutory requirement by taking exams, which he failed multiple times before he finally passed. So if you wonder why morale is so low at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, look no further.