INDIANAPOLIS – In an effort to help officers reflect the communities they serve, Indianapolis police recently hired their first officer from the Sikh community.
For officer Mittan Katoch, 26, he said his new job is simply him living out his dream, but little did he know he was making history.
“I honestly thought there might be more Sikh police officers in IMPD, but to learn I am the first is quite shocking,” said Katoch, who is a graduate of the department’s 13th recruit class.
The new officer said it has been his dream to become an officer since he was a child.
“I used to write essays about it,” he said. “I've got tons of feedback, tons of support, comments on Facebook like ‘hey, we're proud of you, way to lead the way.’ I feel like I’m the spearhead to the movement of getting different ethnicities into the department.”
In addition to Katoch’s hiring, a diversity and inclusion manager also joined the staff to help suggest ways the department can increase their number of minority candidates and officers.
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The diversity and inclusion manager will be charged with reviewing internal and external factors including how the department recruits candidates and how police academy is operated.
“One hundred percent of his job is to look at what we're doing and seeing if we're doing those well,” said officer Aaron Hamer. “If we are doing those well, let's keep them, but if there's things that need to be improved, looking at that and seeing what we can adjust to have our department more representative of our community.”
According to IMPD, the current amount of minorities that make up the population of the department is about 18 percent - however in Marion County, recent U.S. Census data shows minorities make up more than 34 percent of the population.
In 2015 and 2016, 17.3 percent and 17.6 percent of the IMPD’s force were minorities, respectively.
“As we're looking at this, it's clear we want to move the needle because the reality is, it's not reflective of the community,” said Hamer. “There has never been a person in IMPD’s history to be able to do a sole job of looking at diversity and inclusion. It's the first and we're excited about it.”
Katoch said he is excited about his career and the chance to build a bridge between communities.
“Being born and raised in America, I'm Americanized enough to know I can do anything I want,” he said. This is the land of opportunity and to be a part of a police department that's reflective of that is awesome.”
