IMPD revamping unsolved homicides unit [Video]

INDIANAPOLIS — Since Jan. 1, 2021, with hundreds of unsolved homicides, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s homicide clearance rate is well below 50%.

Typically, the original detective on a killing would hold on to that file, surrendering it to a cold case investigator only upon retirement or transfer from IMPD’s homicide branch.

Now, IMPD is taking a fresh look at old cases before they turn cold.

”What we’ve instituted over the last six months is a process that allows the detective to keep it for a period of two years unsolved,” IMPD Deputy Chief of Investigations Kendale Adams said. “At that two-year period, there’s a meeting with the unsolved homicide unit, the supervisors, the detective, and they kind of walk through the case to determine what things are missing, what things are they still waiting on, are we waiting on a phone dump, or, are we still waiting on DNA, …