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In past year, 2 IMPD officers have been shot, 38 have fired their guns

More than 1,100 use-of-force incidents reported
Posted at 7:42 PM, Jul 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-08 23:28:58-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- Nearly 40 IMPD officers have fired their guns or been fired at over the past year.

In 23 incidents between January 2015 and April 2016 (the most recent period of data available), 38 officers across Indianapolis discharged their weapons. Almost 50 percent of those incidents involved a male subject armed with a handgun (In all incidents the subject was a male). In two cases, IMPD officers received non-fatal gunshot wounds.

Nationwide, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks on-duty officer deaths, says 26 officers have been killed this year – a 44 percent increase compared to the same time in 2015, the organization says.

DATA| Police shootings & attacks on cops nationwide

The last IMPD officer killed in the line of duty was Officer Perry Renn, who was shot and killed July 5, 2014, while responding to a domestic disturbance on the northeast side.

MORE | Remembering IMPD's Perry Renn on 2-year anniversary of death | Indianapolis police Officer Perry Renn killed in shootout with suspect

Violence against, and by, police officers was thrust back into the spotlight this month after five Dallas police officers were killed by a sniper in an apparent ambush during a Black Lives Matter rally.

PHOTOS | Snipers open fire on police in Dallas

The rally itself was protesting the deaths of two black men at the hands of police in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Nine people were shot and killed by IMPD in 2015. Click the image below to see where all of those shootings occurred:

The man police say is responsible for the deaths in Dallas, 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran Micah Johnson, told authorities he was upset about those deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana and wanted to exterminate whites, "especially white officers," according to the Associated Press.

DALLAS COVERAGE | 12 officers shot, 5 killed in Dallas attack | Dallas suspect said he wanted to kill whites | IMPD chief discusses Dallas shootings | Indy FOP president: Dallas is 'tragic reminder' | Local groups mourn officers killed in Dallas

In Indianapolis, which is approximately 58 percent white and 24.5 black, black and white subjects account for roughly the same percentage of use-of-force incidents.

In 1,153 use-of-force incidents reported by IMPD between Jan. 1 2015 and April 30, 2016, 43.2 percent involved white subjects and 47.2 percent involved black subjects.

However, in those same incidents, 84.7 percent of the officers were white, while only 10.6 percent were black.

Indianapolis police provide detailed data about any incident where force is used. The most common type of force: Taser; followed by physical take downs and weight leveraging. The most common reason listed for using force over the past year was resisting arrest. 

MORE ON VIOLENCE IN INDIANAPOLISIMPD officers increasingly under fire | MAP: Fatal 2015 officer-involved shootings | MAP: 2016 Indianapolis homicides | 2015 now Indianapolis' deadliest year on record