IMPD hosts event for women interested in law enforcement INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department celebrated the women who helped build their department on Saturday, while recruiting the next generation. Less than 200 IMPD officers are women, making up only 14% of its force. The department hopes to see both numbers skyrocket in coming years. “I just want to be one of those women that was sitting up there,” Luey Lirarno said. She came to Saturday’s “Her Badge, Her Impact” event at IMPD’s training academy. She hopes to become an officer herself. The event brought the hopefuls behind the badge with information on the department’s training process, the officers’ personal stories and what it takes to be in law enforcement today. The event also featured an optional fitness test. “I think it’s wonderful,” Mary Ann Kitzmiller, who also plans to become an officer, said. “We definitely lack a lot of female officers and I think it’s good that a lot of them are here today, especially a lot of the ‘white shirts’ are here. It shows they’ve been in the department for quite some time now and they are able to share their experiences and kind of why they got into it and maybe encourage a lot of the newer recruits that are coming in.” The event was part of the nationwide 30×30 Initiative. IMPD is joining to help increase the number of women in police recruiting classes to 30% by 2030. It comes as IMPD has seen decreasing recruiting class sizes in recent years. As of March 1, the department had 1,440 sworn officers. That’s 300 short of its target staffing. Recruits like Kitzmiller believe female officers help make the department’s service to the community stronger. “The times that I’ve seen female officers show up, especially when it’s like a younger female, like teenager, a younger female kid. They have a lot, I guess, better time, easier time, being able to get the patient to talk to them on a more comfortable level.” ...read more read less