And we're already short officers. We already have officers that are in stressful situations. Like have that stress off of his shoulders. That's huge to put yourself back into [music] harm's way. That's pretty intense. That's a lot of emotions.
Yes. They do [music] engage regularly and in these community events and they are finding out issues that need to be taken care of. What do you think [music] the biggest misconception about law enforcement in central Indiana is? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Who's Your State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. This episode [music] is brought to you by Cluster Truck, the pickup and delivery kitchen, born right here in Indianapolis, just like this podcast.
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Now, my guest today is Lisa Rollings and she is the executive director of the Central Indiana Police Foundation. This is the nonprofit that backs police officers across eight counties in the Indianapolis region. And I'm really excited to dive into her journey with the Central Indiana Police Foundation and learn about the impact that you're making, not just for officers that are out there every day in our region, but also their families as well. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Wow.
I mean, in the two minutes that we talked right before pressing record, I'm really excited. This is an organization that I do not know much about, but I mean from the two minutes there, it's like this is super important and the work y'all are doing is uh is very very impactful here in central Indiana. So I mean I want to start off with just like base level or for those that don't know out there, what is the Central Indiana Police Foundation? Yes. So our mission is to support law enforcement officers in their departments in our territory. And there's a variety of ways we do that from whether it's a personal need or a departmental need um or community need when it comes to interacting with police.
Yeah. Okay. That's like very high level like how does that look tactically? Okay. So we kind of break it down into three areas which makes it make sense a little bit. The first one is called code one.
And that's when we have an officer who's been injured in the line of duty, killed in the line of duty, or there's catastrophic something going on in their family healthwise. So, we want to be able to step up and help that officer. Um, it also, for example, an example is um Carmel, we have a police officer who lost their home in the flooding and so they've lost everything. So yesterday I was working with the department. We are paying for a storage unit to get what is salvage salvageable into the storage unit. Okay.
And then furniture and stuff. Where did the central Indiana Police Foundation start? Like how where did this organization come from? So in 2013 we is when it began and it began with an idea to provide medical kits and training for police officers on duty to be able to treat their own as well as community members who have been injured in some form or fashion. So that was the whole premise of why we got started. So before 2013, police officers didn't have first aid kits.
You know, some did um but in general the old school police didn't feel like that was their role. They weren't medics. They were not EMTs. Um, but we all learned when an officer was shot um on the line of duty and a officer who had been an EMT in the military had his own kit um and he saved that officer's life. That became, wo, okay, we really need to have something um that each officer has um on their person or in their car that they can treat um these folks. Yeah.
Okay. So that starts in 2013 as like getting medical kits into the into the possession of of all police officers there. From there then how does it start to evolve and start to bring on you know more support for police officers in central Indiana? Yeah. Um you know we just started growing and looking at what the biggest needs were and our strate leading it in 2013. Um well in 2013 it was the Indianapolis Police Foundation.
It was just focused on IMPD and at that time we had a board and we had they hired an executive director who led it for a year and so there's been a little bit of change in staff since then and I started about 8 years ago. Okay. So a group of people come together and say hey we need to have this in all IMPD to start. And so they raise some money. Y and then it's just like, okay, well now what other ways can we help support police officers in central Indiana? And so it just kind of evolves based on need.
Where was like the next big need after the medical kits that you guys identified and started to go out and and work on? Well, there was some, you know, budgets are tight. Um Yes. And so one of the things that we started doing is helping buy bulletproof vest. Oh, they expire after a period of time and they're very pricey. And so we um we started working with those departments whose budgets were really tight and helping get a handful of those into each department.
[clears throat] Um wellness now is the last few years wellness has been a big deal. So, we've been focusing on helping officers get well and we look at all aspects of wellness and we started a wellness summit um which we've had two years in a row. We've taken this year off to regroup and and try to reframe it. Um but it's been very successful bringing people in that are experts in different fields and educating um officers from the department about how they can implement different programs, how they can form a relationship with counselors, etc. , etc. to help keep their officers healthy or get them healthy when they've fallen off the track.
Okay. Now, how did you get involved with the Central Indiana Police Foundation? So, I have no law enforcement in my family. never really had much interaction with law enforcement. In January of 2018, I had a car accident and at that time I had an officer in Greenwood. It was in Greenwood just taking care of me.
I'm crying and I've my my um airbags have gone off. I'm bleeding and and I'm, you know, he is just calming me down. and he's hand he and his um partner are handling the scene and I just really had this epiphany of oh my gosh this is what they do every day and so I was ready to look for something new and I saw this position come up and I thought oh I can do I want to back police officers I want to support them and so I just felt really passionate about it and you know when I started we were you know very small and we've grown and added staff and you know tripled our the money that we bring in annually and done all kinds the great work and so I'm just really passionate about it. Yeah. I mean, what an amazing cause to get behind cuz I think there's a lot more than meets the eye from just like all of the the needs like you talk about from flooding to the other piece is you're not just supporting the officers and you know the needs that they have like while in the line of duty, but also like their families and and especially in catastrophic events, right?
How did the how did the Central Indiana Police Foundation start supporting more holistically the police officers and and get involved with families? So, whenever an officer's killed in the line of duty, for example, how often does that happen? Like, lord, I mean, it's h throughout the nation, it's happening almost daily. It's crazy. you're here in Indianapolis. Like for you guys, how often are you how often are you having a family that you need to like step in and support and help?
When they're killed in the line of duty, if you're asking specific, I mean, we just had um Beach Grove um officer Brian Elliott um that was killed in the line of duty. We had Fred Fistler, Hendrickx County. Um we've had um I'm sure I I won't be able to name all of them. There's been quite a few in the 8 years I've been here. When I first started, we were working with Southport police officer Aaron Allen who had been killed in the line of duty. Um, and so I kind of rolled into the middle of that.
But when an officer is killed in the line of duty, there's obviously their family that's impacted and there's a team that's well trained and goes out and meet with them. So, usually I work with that team on the back end. We set up funds kind of the equivalent of a gofundme and then as that team starts you know backing up and take they've taken care of most of their roles many times I step in and work with the family and see what the rest of their needs are maybe recommend a counselor or recommend a financial planner um because we do raise a lot of money for these families and if they manage it well they won't have to worry we can you know they can invest it in college funds for their children or whatever So, oh, I mean, I just can't even imagine having to step into that kind of conversation. Um, like for a career, like that's just very very uh emotional and and has to be super hard when you're talking about families and legacy and then you're also talking about finances.
Like that's just a lot. Yeah. And I I stay more on the higher level of how can I help you? What are your needs? And let me refer you to some folks. So, you know, I try not to get too detailed into that cuz I'm not the expert, right?
But I do have vetted experts that we've worked with that we trust and we know that would take care of these families. Um, so we want to help provide those resources to them. Yeah. So when talking about the resources that you have available for officers, you talk about like wellness summit, you talk about, you know, different financial planning things like what are the resources that you are, you know, administering to police officers in central Indiana and their families? Like what are kind of the programs and different ways that you're supporting them? Like tactically, what does that look like?
Yes. So, going back to what we were talking about earlier, code one is our program where there's someone who's ill in that family or the officer's ill or sick or been injured and just helping with whatever their most major need is at the time and that varies from a storage unit for the flooded out officer to we had an officer whose child shot and killed herself in the home. So, we helped get them into a home that they could stay until that h that home was cleaned and prepared and sold. They could not move back in there. Yeah. Um so then there is invest in blue which is the equipment and training that the budget doesn't cover.
And so that's where the trauma kits have come in where we provide the trauma kits. We've definitely provided at least one for every officer in every department um in central Indiana. But what's happening is those departments are growing. They're hiring new officers. So, we continue to supply the trauma kits for that. When drones came out, we [clears throat] assisted with some grant funds to pay for drones.
Um, and you know the big story I I don't know remember officer um Tommy Mangan IMPD officer Tommy Mangan. He was new on the job and was shot and they used one of those drones with thermal energy um heat sourcing to find the gentleman who shot Tommy who was hiding in a backyard. So we helped provide grants for drones. Wow. No, I know this is a big a big hot button topic I feel like in Indianapolis is about police funding and all the different things there. Like from your perspective and what you're seeing like what is when you have conversations with law enforcement officials in Indianapolis like what is a part of the story that you're hearing?
Well, and I feel like some departments are better funded than others. Yeah. Right. Um, and you know, there was just a conversation and and I don't get, again, I don't get too deep into the politics of it. Yeah. I prefer to stay high.
Yeah. Amen. And I know IMPD overall, I think, has been pretty well funded, but there's still, you're never going to be 100% funded. And you know, cars wear out, um, guns wear out, like there's neat un, you know, although the officers get uniform allowances, but you know, there's just different pieces and parts that it's hard to keep up with every single thing. And that's where community citizens can come in and assist with those. Big thing that we do too is we support the mounted patrol.
And so all of our horses are purchased by citizens who love the Mountain Patrol and want to make sure the Mountain Patrol stays part of our city. Um, you know, so we work with those donors and, you know, help manage that those funds. Okay, that's that piece. I I'm curious too about like the different training or development or different options you have for families and just like the raw emotion that you're helping families deal with. Like you know, you talked about it a little bit before we pressed record. like when you go out when when your family member, your spouse, your significant other goes out on the third, you know, the third shift overnight in some of the maybe areas that have more violent crime.
Like, I don't know. I feel like there's just a lot of emotions that are being processed at all times. There are um and so you know we sometimes we have um we have had children of an officer who was shot in the line of duty, not killed going to be able to come back um or a spouse and they just they really have a hard time processing that and so they would like to start some counseling and so we will offer to assist them with counseling cost um in those situations. So that's one of the deals. Um up until the last few years, there hasn't been a lot of consideration for the children of officers. And so the um National Fraternal Order of Police is starting a program now to educate parents, families of officers on how to manage their children and how to have crucial conversations with their children and how to help them deal with and process their emotions with their father or mother being in the, you know, potentially killed in the line of duty or injured.
I think that is a super adult conversation that you would have to have that like maybe as a kid would be really interesting and challenging to comprehend at times where it's like some people's parents will go work in an office and wear a suit and tie and you know deal with money all day and other people's parents put on you know the badge and go out there to patrol the streets and knowing that like I mean even this like you're a kid you go out there and you are injured in the line of duty you go you come back you get healthy and you go back out like to put yourself back into harm's way. Like that's pretty intense. That's a lot of emotion to deal with as at any age, let alone being a kid. Well, and the other thing in the last few years, you know, the profession was so well respected. Um there are areas um where people don't respect officers and children go to school in those areas and so they are taunted by children of people who don't respect law enforcement.
And there's, you know, especially everything that was going on with the George Floyd situ Floyd situation, there was a lot of problems that officer families had with their children dealing with stuff and they weren't equipped to deal with that. You know, I feel like it goes it's it's so tough any profession anywhere. It's like there are there are always individuals that will misuse their power and that can create horrible circumstance. I mean, right now they're talking about like the thing I keep seeing is like, you know, flat cameras and what we're what those are being used for and stuff and it's like I mean, this is how it is with any, you know, any there's bad players in every single from financial planners. I had a friend of mine, his financial planner stole his money like and you know there's a thousand and a thousand financial planners maybe two are bad you know and and there are bad players and there you know definitely but the officers I work with 99% of them men and women they'll do anything for you and they have a heart of service and it's sad for th those good people that the bad ones Yeah.
I mean, that's like the the unfortunate part, especially where stories can just, you know, obviously get amplified a ton. Oh, and it's crazy. It's worse than ever. Yeah. And it's like this is the first time I would say that, you know, I think if you were a little kid and you wanted to go as like a police officer for Halloween in 2005, very cool. 2001, very, very cool, right?
Like that would be that would be like a hero. And now it's like not looked at as much that way. And is that something you're seeing too? Like is there a shortage in new new like young people wanting to get into the profession? There's definitely a recruitment issue and I mean I wouldn't want to sign myself up for this. like, you know, like I have nothing but respect for anyone that does, but like it's, you know, you're going to put yourself into these stressful situations where, you know, again, it's like the public perception is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago, which is unfortunate.
Um, and it's like, yeah, you have a you have bad players that create a negative persona. And for I don't know I always think of there are like the people that go out there just with a heart of service and you know I don't know you know I after the George George Floyd incident our office was closed down for a period of time. We worked from home and I remember coming on campus and seeing an African-American officer and I just immediately felt emotion for him because I thought he's kind of in the middle as a African-American man. the George Floyd incident. He's a police officer. And I walked up to him and I just hugged him and I said, "How are you doing?"
And he looked at me, he goes, "You know what?" He goes, "There's a lot more people that support police than what we're seeing. They're just afraid to say it." He goes, "I constantly have people coming up to me, patting me on the back, thanking me, paying for my lunch." He goes, "People support us more. they just don't want to say anything because they don't want, you know, the media to grab on to it or on social media and things like that.
So, [snorts] you know, I yeah, I I do think there are more people that understand um and respect still respect the position um than we know. But, you know, you say anything and it's blown up, you know, and you're attacked, especially on social media. Do you have like specific stories on how you guys have come alongside uh officers, families in Indiana that have paid the ultimate price, like ways that you're you guys have supported a family uh and and kind of like u the impact that your foundation has had. Yeah. I mean, every family's different. Yeah.
Right. Like every family is different. Sometimes you have children, sometimes you don't. Um, you know, I think about Aaron Allen and I was able to get to know his wife and um, work with her and so financially we received several hundred,000 and you know she had a financial planner on her own. She's invested that. We've continued to work with her on there's side projects where there's memorial events to remember Aaron and then, you know, we've checked in.
We've helped her son um with some um special camp opportunities for children of fallen officers. Um cuz that would be a Yeah, there's like um there's like a community there, you know, there is a community there who definitely a small group of people who can relate to that experience actually. Yeah. And little we call him little I call him little man, little Aaron. He's now in high school. He's a grown he's grown.
Um but you know he does he has all these friends that he's been going to this camps that had lost their parent too. And so those relationships are just hugely impactful. And so you know there's just different things that that we've done for that family. Um that was my very first family when I started in this role. And then the next family that we've worked with is um IMPD officer Brienne Leath. and she was single mom to a three-year-old son, Zayn.
And we've raised money um for him and have invested that and put it into a um trust. We have named um some police affiliated folks to run that and they work with his dad so that you know he his needs will be taken care of. And we also sold a lot of merch and worked with some of her family members, her immediate family members and helped with some put some things in place just to enhance their family um and and their time with Zayn um when he's able to get over there and things like that. So again, we just do diff and and for them we help give them a several different um resource people within banking and investments and things like that. That would be hard too as a single mom of a three-year-old. Like, you know, you're I mean, he How old would he be now?
Nine. Wow. And it's like like he is probably learning I mean is learning about his mom through stories and friends and co-workers and teammates. Like that just like breaks my heart a lot. Like oh my gosh. Um he's doing really well though.
Um, his dad's just an amazing dad. And fortunately, a lot of Brienne's friends are still involved in Zayn's life. Um, and get him every now and then and do things special things with him. And he's a very he's doing great. He's just a great kid. If your current place is [music] starting to feel a little too [singing] small, too far away, or just not quite right anymore, it might be time for a change.
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I go back to what we you and I talked about offline. It's, you know, people don't truly understand what the sacrifices what law enforcement makes and what the family makes and the experiences they have. They see the worst of humanity um on a daily basis, especially your bigger your bigger departments like IMPD, East District. They just, you know, there's people on the street coming off of drugs. There's car accidents where they find an infant dead in a car seat, you know, car seat or a mom, the the infants find the mom is dead. like there's just these absolutely horrible, unbelievable experiences that they're having on a weekly basis.
Um, and that works on people, you know, like can you imagine just you or I if we would we would come upon an accident and see one time it would be in our brains for a long time and our hearts would be breaking, you know, that like if you came across a police accident with a fatality or a car accident with a fatality, like that would be something that would be like a a lifelong memorable experience. Yes. They're seeing multiples of those. Yeah. And that's why it's so important for us to really stay on top of keeping them healthy. The departments, many of them are adding um they're taking officers who have been on the streets and they're now training them to be count some of them are going to get counseling degrees and they're working and every time an officer is in a situation, they're checking in on them, asking them, hey, let's talk, let's review, you know, and they're those those officers are being trained how to properly handle those um those situations.
And then many of the departments are adding peer counseling, just peer-topeer relationships. So we have you have a buddy, you know, you and I be paired up and then we could talk it through and it helps process that immediately, you know, and then if you see something in me that maybe like, hey, I've got some anger stuff going on since that situation, you can call me out on it and get get me to get help. How many officers do you support across central Indiana? Um the number is around 5,000. Yeah, that's fully staffed. Unfortunately, we have some departments are underst staffed.
So, the officer number is a little bit less than that, but ideally if every department was fully staffed to be right around 5,000 officers. Yeah. Where do you feel like the biggest need like do you hear of like what the biggest need currently is for like whether it's staffing or thing like where is the biggest opportunity to make an impact financial donations that we can manage because we are on the front line and know the needs whether it's counseling whether it's a house flooded or we've had an officer one time a brand new officer whose baby was born with major physical issues and so his wife was not able to work. She was a hairdresser. Like, so we learn these stories and we're able to funnel those funds to and we monitor and make sure they're spent. It's not which I think I respect.
It's like wraparounds. Like that has nothing to do with law enforcement specifically. It just goes to like supporting someone that is within your organization, like someone that is Yeah. If we can if that officer is not so stressed out from financial because wife can't work and he's in with the baby and then he can go to work every day and have that stress off of his shoulders. That's huge. And we're already short officers.
We already have officers that are in stressful situations like what can we do? And it's not a long-term we don't help for years down the road necessarily. We're helping in that biggest need. You know, like for example, I had an officer, longtime officer's house burned down. And I called him. I said, "Hey, what is your biggest need?"
He goes, "My 13-year-old daughters don't have beds." So, I'm like, "I got you." I called a partner of ours. We had beds ready, paid for. Actually, they were they were given to us at an extreme discount. And they were delivered that afternoon.
That was huge weight off his shoulders. He didn't want his girls sleeping on the floor of this rental house that he had just secured, you know. Wow. So, yeah, I feel like that is it is just like an extra piece that um yeah, can step in at a time of need and help support um police officers in central Indiana. That is like the full spectrum, right, of like, you know, the most severe of the most severe of like injured or uh killed in the line of duty to Yeah. you know, unfortunate circumstances like the flood happened and you're still there uh taking care of of your own, which I think is is incredible and super necessary.
Yeah. And I will tell you though, like for example, with the officer that's flooded, there is a variety of folks coming together. There's a variety of officers, you know, families that had babies around the same age of this officer's baby that are giving clothes and diapers. like it is a village that surrounds the officers when they have need. It's not just us. Um but people will say, "How can I help?
How can I support?" I'm like, "CIPF is the perfect way to support." And then if maybe some people are really into supporting the canine dogs. They love the canine dogs. So we can, you know, earmark the funds they donate to help those animals. Maybe they want to help with the horses.
Oh, I want to buy equipment. And I've got one high net worth person who's like, "What do you need for the horses?" And I'm like, "We would like to buy new saddles. We haven't had new saddles for 10 year, 15 years." And so he wrote a check. He goes, "I want you to buy good, nice saddles that are beautiful."
You know? Yeah. That's you guys are like the the funding for the mountain patrol. We are the main fundraiser. There was the Mounted Patrol Association for many years and so we worked with them and then we kind of acquired them and have some of their board is on our board now. And cuz you guys just got a new they got a new facility recently, right?
2024 2025. Yes. CIPF was on the front line of helping to raise funds and build that barn. Where's the new barn at? It is over off Washington Street on the property of the old um hospital. Okay.
Um the the the psych psychic hospital. What's the name of it? I'm going blank. Um but it's over there on that property off Tibs in Vermont. And cuz where were they out of before? I feel like I they were there too, but they were in a rental space and it was an old canning building that they turned into a barn.
So and then the canine built a property. I we worked with K9 and we helped build a new barn or not a barn a facility there for K9. So then we've just added the mounted patrol. They're all there now on the same campus. Yes. Okay.
Right by is it Central State? Yes. Thank you. It wasn't coming to me. Yeah. Okay.
Nice. And so yeah, the IMPD mounted patrol over on the west side. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Brand new barn is I see 13 stables, 20,000 square feet. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. Let's go. The officers are so so happy because they've never had a permanent home and they've always um you know, rented spaces and this particular space they were in prior they were supposed to get out of because it was going to be developed.
And they hung there for a little bit longer than they needed wanted to, but um it took us a minute to get all the funding for the barn. It ended up being about 2. 1 million that we raised. Amazing. Now, you also do annual scholarships, right? Okay.
Yeah. So, that's really cool. I'm glad you asked about that. Yeah. When the FedEx shooting happened and we had several people in our community were killed, there was a young woman by the name of Samaria Blackwell. And Samriia's goal, she was working at FedEx, saving money, and she was going to go to try to go to the ILA, the law enforcement academy, to be an officer.
That was her dream is to be a police officer. Well, that dream was cut short. And I was introduced to her parents who are truly the most beautiful people I've ever met. Um, so compassionate, kind, and just amazing. And so we talked about starting a scholarship for young people who were going to college and plan to go to be in some sort of law enforcement. And so we have been giving that scholarship now for 4 years, I believe.
Wow, that's amazing. And so one of the cool things we do with that, it's not a huge amount of money. It's around $600 per scholarship, but we have a dinner and we invite the scholarship winners, their families, and we bring Samaria's PA parents there along with some of our board and we get together every year and that the kids love it. The the people, the scholarship, the families love it and Samaria's parents love it. It's a way to they can talk about her and share her dreams and desires and it's just the most fuzzy feel-good thing like and that we're remembering that young woman who was just an exceptional young woman. Yeah, absolutely.
Another one that I just saw was it Okay. Did you guys work with Rotary for the $100,000 into the youth programs for IMPD Cares? Talk to me about what happened with that. Okay, so I've been a Rotarian for years. I'd step down. Well, first off, I do need uh for anyone that doesn't know what what does being a Rotarian mean?
I was a member of Rotary Club, which is a service organization, and it's mostly professional people that want to give back. I feel like a lot of people uh have been members of Rotary, and you see it all over. They make a huge impact, but young people might not have the best sense of what Rotary is. Yeah. And in fact, I think that many Rotary clubs are struggling trying to get younger people in. Yeah.
Well, even just to understand what it is. Yeah. Yeah, but it's a great service club in professional development and I I've been I was involved in their high school um group and then stayed through my professional career. But when I started this role, I'm serving constantly in my role and initially I was the only full-time employee. So, I was really stretched, but I um reached out to Rotary and we have a board member who is also part of the Rotary Club and we applied for a grant and that grant is going to has already purchased a gaming trailer and the gaming trailer will have our officers in the community engagement space go out into the city like after school hours or in the summer and young people will come to play games. you know.
Yeah. Um I think that is a big opportunity to absolutely um positive interaction between the police and the kids. There's also going to be like a 3minute video with each each video will have some sort of kind of little lesson in it about getting along with people and setting goals and there'll be all these different little videos that they'll have to watch before they start playing. I think that it could be beneficial on both sides. Yes. of like more officers getting out into the community, learning the people that they are protecting and serving, right?
And officers learning about the children. Yeah. Cuz I think that I think that it's easy I think that it's easy to like be like, well, why don't people of all, you know, every citizen of Indiana just respect police officers? And why doesn't every citizen uh why doesn't every police officer respect the citizens of Indiana? And I think that a big piece of it is being curious about how other individuals grow up. Like if you grew up in a place where everyone you knew had had that same maybe fear or skepticism of police officers, like you could understand how that happens.
In the same way if like if you had uh you know different communities, whether you're rural or urban or [clears throat] different places, if you don't know how other people live, Yeah. then you can't really understand how to like connect with them, especially in times of intense stress. Correct. Like I would say like that just um elevates things to like the nth degree. And so having these opportunities to go out and learn about people in the community in nonstressful situations will de like has to help in stressful situations. That's kind of our other we have the three pillars the code one the behind the invest in blue and then behind the line that's where behind the line anytime we can help support raise money to create positive interactions.
And so the gaming trailer was exactly yeah exactly what we want to do. Now that gaming trailer of course is for IMPD. Um but if there are other opportunities for like national night outs where we bring families in and do fun things, we also provide grants for that as well. Yeah, I think that's important. And I mean I think oh gosh so much of life is uh and maybe it's just like the benefit of getting to talk all day and ask questions to people but it's like if you just sit down learning other people learning about other people. Yes.
It's like I feel like so often we are so quick to make assumptions or or like sometimes you're nervous or scared or just don't know how to ask the questions the right way. And when you go out there and you're just curious about individuals and learn about you protect yourself. You you you've been in so much vulnerable so many vulnerable situations your immediate thing is to protect yourself and back off and make judgment and you know protect yourself, right? Like that's the natural thing. Yeah. So I I think yeah whether it's the gaming trailer or different events any ways that you can get hooers police officer hoosers normal like people everyday citizens interacting together and learning about each other and figuring out I mean at the end of the day I would say I hope 95 plus% of people in the state of Indiana want to make our city and our state better.
We want to make it a safer place where everyone can thrive and grow and like you know I think that a lot of that happens from you know true curiosity conversations talking and bridging gaps. Absolutely. You guys do a lot of work with you guys were in involved with canines as well. Yes. So, we also have absorbed the IMPPD K9 Association several years ago before I started. And so, we had helped build the the new property that they're or building that they're in and continue to raise money, work with donors, and um many of the the dogs are bought through private donations, although the city budgets for dogs as well.
Um, but for example, there's 30ome 33 dogs, I think. Well, it changes, but I think right now there's 32 33 dogs on the canine um unit. And so those dogs maybe will get injured or um you know, we've had a couple dogs die of just really weird circumstances. You know, the stomach twist or something. That's not happened often. I think that's it's been once in a few years.
But the bottom line is or we'll get a dog and that dog does not work out for some reason. So, we have to get a new dog for that handler. And so, the bud, it's really hard to budget and plan for a dog that isn't going to make it or a dog that becomes ill, you know. And our dogs, I swear, our dogs have better care than some human beings. Um, they've got the best vet care and they're given the best food and they're so well taken care of. But, um, you know, just sometimes things happen.
I was looking up what, uh, National Night Out. Yeah. Is that what it's called? National. Yeah. And it's that's a really cool organization, too.
That's like an I mean, obviously nationally, but again, like I think that our departments take advantage of that overarching theme and offer a national night out there locally to bring in the families and have have a family fun night and interact with the law enforcement, which is crazy that this started in 1970. Yeah. Yeah, like this was something dating all the way back to to 1970 that they thought was important. I didn't even know that. Yeah, I'm on the website reading about it. But which I think this is a piece that maybe in smalltown Indiana like you know, you probably know the faces, know the names, you see them at the football games, like you you have more interaction in again, I keep going back to these nonstressful situations.
Yeah. And the more that people can be familiar and know that like these are people too on both sides. It's like police officers know that when they show up, like you're going into a neighborhood where people live and this is their home and obviously there's a high high pressure, high stress situation and vice versa. And then like just keeping people safe. And what people don't realize too, a lot of officers on their beat or our community engagement officers, they are interacting with some of the same people and the same children. And I've known of situations where um a child's bike was stolen, so the officer went and bought the bike.
Um, officer Brienne Lee, this has been public where she worked with this one particular homeless guy and she bought pots and pans for him. You know, like officers spend so much money out of their own pockets helping. And so sometimes when it's a bigger need, they'll come to us. I know we had a an officer who was involved with a family and the mother died and grandma had to take over. Well, found out they didn't even have like decent beds and so we worked with our vendor to get them mattresses and bed frames. So our officers when they're engaging regularly, they do engage regularly on their beat and in these community events and they are finding out issues that need to be taken care of or they try to help or provide resources and folks don't see that.
You don't see that on the media. No, absolutely. Oh well, we've come down to the end of the show where we get to talk all things Indiana. I mean, this has been super enlightening about all the ways that the Central Indiana Police Foundation is making an impact and and supporting officers to, you know, obviously go out and and do their job, but also the things that come around that with families. And I just think that that is an interesting piece that uh that not a lot of people probably know about, just like the the inner workings there. Um, this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart.
They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejcr. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home? I love Indiana. I moved here after college with a career, met my husband, raised two children here, and uh it's home.
Love it. Oh, yeah. That's so great. How many counties do you guys serve? Eight. Eight.
Is that all the doughnut counties? Yeah. Wow. Which is like honestly interesting. you go from like IMPD to like a rural, you know, police department like like very different uh very different experiences, very different challenges there. That's super interesting.
Uh okay, so serving all eight of these counties, do you get to like travel out and go to different parts? We do. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, this is this is a good question for you.
We ask every guest who comes on the show to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Ooh. Well, I don't know if it's hidden, but personally, my husband and I love Brown County. Yeah, we go there on the get-go. We need to explore new things probably, but we just keep going back to our favorite.
So, whether we want to go out to lunch and we want to shop or we want to go hiking or we want to do a little bit of both. Sometimes we bring our dog and he loves it. So, Brown County is We just absolutely love going there. I love that. Okay, this is your opportunity. This is where we source new guest ideas and learn about other hooers that are doing awesome things.
Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar, someone who's doing big things. One of my board members is pretty amazing. Um her name is Aaron Smith. She owns a company called Spotlight Strategies and um she and her business partner Sue Susan. They do this huge walk every year that to raise money for Johnson County um nonprofits. And then she's also active in the political space as well and and thinking of a run politically in Johnson County.
And she's just really a mover shaker. She gets things done. She's just great outlook on life. Um and just an amazing woman. So check her out and see what she's into. Aaron Smith, Spotlight Strategies in Franklin.
Yes, absolutely. Okay, that's a good one. Um now, where did you go to undergrad? Uh Ohio State. Ohio State. And then you moved to Indiana.
I did. So how how long have you been in the Hooser State? Uh 2000. Okay. So 26 years. So 26 years.
You've seen a lot of Indiana different, you know, ups, downs, the whole nine yards. But I have to know after 26 years of being a Hooser, when you close your eyes and think about it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? Something that just embodies what it means to be a Hooser? I think my very first time at the Indy500. Yes, [laughter] that is I mean that embodies what it is to be a Hooser. That's crazy.
Seriously, that was And actually, ironically, that was my first really big date with my husband was the Indy500. Wow. And then we went again two years ago um and with some friends and we just had we hadn't been since then and we just had a blast. I love that. It's so fun. It is so fun.
Absolutely. It's a whole experience. I appreciate you stopping by and uh talking to us about the amazing impact that the Central Indiana Police Foundation is has uh across not just police officers in central Indiana, but their families, support, the youth, the community. Like there's a lot of work being done with a lot of partners and stakeholders at the table and uh yeah, it's incredible to see. Thank you for sharing with us. If people want to learn more, if they want to get involved, how can they do that?
Uh yeah, maybe check out our website at cip for policef. foundation. cipf. foundation. They can learn a lot about what we're doing there and and they can email us from that site if they have any questions or would like to volunteer or anything like that. Yeah, I love it.
All right. Well, hey, keep up the good work and we'll talk soon. Thank you. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. [music] Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations [music] at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and [music] Tik Tok, Nate Spangle.
Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get