IMPD working to drive down youth crime INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The lead officer of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department who’s trying to drive down youth crime tells I-Team 8 the culture of the city needs to change. In September, I-Team 8 uncovered more than 650 juveniles have been convicted of violent crimes in 2022 and 2023. IMPD Officer Ralph Durrett Jr. said, “Violence in itself, or crime within itself is a secondary effect from something else.” Durrett is six months into being IMPD’s chief violence prevention officer. “First six months has been identifying who many of our community partners are. Now, it’s going to be able to connect those so we can start to put initiatives in place.” Those initiatives will focus on having community organizations work together to tackle the problem. Durrett has found out why that’s not already happening. “It’s competition-heavy when we’re talking about community organizations, whether it’s grant funding, access to resources, to kids.” Getting community organizations to put egos aside will allow them to tackle the root causes of why youth commit crimes, which Durrett believes is actually a reflection of the adults around them. “When we see young people they are reflection of the culture and the environments that they come from and, by that, that means the young person is just reacting to what they see and what’s going on around them. It’s on the adults to create the environments and elevate the culture in a way to where the kids can start to move in a different way.” Durrett says he’s not daunted by the task of turning around systemic societal issues that ultimately lead to kids committing crime. “In itself, it seems like a steep hill to climb, but a lot of our issues these are layups.”