(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The head of the Indiana State Police and other law enforcement officials working on reforms for the Gary Police Department defended their proposals after the city council president criticized them last week.
Mayor Jerome Prince likewise supported efforts by the state police, saying they have been working in Gary for more than four months at his request. He said Council President William Godwin’s remarks about state police were contemptuous of law enforcement and derisive.
ISP Supt. Douglas Carter insisted the list of proposals are not political and says he will charge ahead.
“I’m not going to get into a tit-a-tat with a young man that has no idea what it’s like to run a police agency,” Carter said at a news conference Monday. He said: "I'm not going anywhere."
Godwin accused state police of being disrespectful and exclusionary as they craft ordinances, and he called Carter an outsider.
The partnership with state police has produced 17 ordinance proposals to give the next local police chief greater powers in an effort to make officers more accountable.
Lake County Indiana Prosecutor Bernard Carter said he supports the review.
Godwin and some other council members object to removing police oversight power from a bipartisan committee, saying they fear politics will enter into discipline and hiring.
Gary currently has an interim police chief and has had 11 police chiefs in 16 years.
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