INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The technology to track the demographics of everyone pulled over by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was approved to be taught to officers by the General Orders Board.

If you’re pulled over on the streets of Indianapolis, the pilot program is aimed to find out if that traffic stop was racial profiling.

“This is not about us making more work for the officers. This is not that we believe the officers are doing anything wrong,” said IMPD Deputy Chief Kevin Wethington.

The program was created by IMPD, “It’s easy to use. It’s drop downs. No fill in the blanks,” Wethington said.

Things like sex, race, how long the stop lasted, why the stop was started, was the person searched, was the car searched, and why was the car searched are all categories officers will have to enter before submitting the form.

If done efficiently, IMPD said it could take 20-30 seconds.

“I don’t know that the line officers are going to be excited about a new mandate to do another step in traffic stops, but I believe the officers will embrace the why behind this,” Wethington said.

The why is to get a detailed picture of who they’re stopping, where, and why, even if that person doesn’t get a ticket or get arrested.

“This will actually answer those questions for the first time,” Wethington said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana fully supports the implementation of the program because of what the end data could show. It could lead to major changes in how policing is done in Indianapolis.

Is there any concern that there might actually be some sort of profiling, or racial profiling, that’s actively going on, but is just not known because there is no data?

“Yes. At the ACLU we have just seen example after example nation wide of police departments, even those who have policies in place and have good intent, engaging in racial profiling,” said Chris Daley, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana.

Wethington does not have those concerns about what the data will show.

“We stop criminals. We stop traffic offenders. We stop people that need to be stopped,” Wethington said.

IMPD told I-Team 8, once this program is up and running, they’ll have to pair up with a research team that will sift through all of this data to determine if there is any racial profiling going.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — America’s largest ultra low-cost air carriers are on decidedly different flight paths this week.

One is struggling to survive, while two others are announcing expanded schedules – including new flights into and out of Indianapolis.

Spirit Airlines declared bankruptcy Monday in an attempt to reboot as it struggles to gain financial altitude lost during the pandemic travel swoon and the airline’s scuttled sale to JetBlue.

Spirit has worked out terms with its stakeholders leading to the Chapter 11 filing, and the carrier says it will keep operating as normal.

Now, Allegiant and Frontier announced Tuesday are rolling out new flight schedules.

In Allegiant’s case, it’s the company’s largest ever – with 44 new routes and service to three new cities.

“We’re excited to announce that Allegiant is expanding nationwide, offering even more travel options to our customers,” Drew Wells, Allegiant’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement accompanying the new schedule. “These additions reflect our ongoing commitment to meet customer demand. By connecting more cities, we’re making it easier for travelers to visit family and friends, access top leisure destinations, and create new memories.”

The headline addition for Indiana readers is a non-stop route between Indianapolis (IND) and Portland, Oregon (PDX), beginning May 23, 2025.

Allegiant is starting service to Gulf Shores, Alabama (GUF), Colorado Springs, Colorado (COS), and Columbia, South Carolina (CAE).

The additions bring Allegiant’s service map to 51 cities in all.

Frontier’s new Indianapolis offerings are non-stops to Tampa and Atlanta, allowing customers to skip the customary Denver connection that currently adds several hours and thousands to those routes.

The Tampa flights will debut March 6, 2025 and take off three times per week.
The Atlanta flights begin the next day, March 7, 2025 and also repeat three times each week.

Both airlines are offering introductory fares well below regular price. Frontier’s new IND flights start as low as $19. Allegiant’s begin at $79.

The City-County Council’s Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee on Monday approved a proposal to change the city’s restrictions on billboards. The move is part of a compromise after state lawmakers nearly passed a similar provision into law this year.

A measure from state lawmakers would have allowed owners of billboards to relocate them without receiving a city permit. When that proposal was introduced as an amendment to a transportation bill in January, local groups including Historic Urban Neighborhoods of Indianapolis, or HUNI, came out against it. The measure was eventually withdrawn.

Shannon Norman, principal planner for code revision, said state lawmakers instead gave the Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration the task of meeting with representatives of the billboard industry to find a compromise on relocation and Indy’s current standards.

Norman told the council metropolitan and economic development committee Monday that Proposition 349 is that compromise. The change gives advertisers the option of relocating signs, Norman said, but upholds the long-held restriction that there cannot be new billboards inside of the Interstate 465 loop. That restriction was established in 2002 and most recently affirmed in a 2019 council vote.

Members of neighborhood advocacy groups like HUNI and the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations have long been against the proliferation of billboards in the center of the city.

Norman said the city measure maintains that goal, but gives billboard owners more leeway to relocate signs.

Mainly, the proposal states that companies may relocate billboards that are within the Interstate 465 loop from one placement to another on the same parcel of land without obtaining a permit. Outside the loop, signs can be relocated to different parcels without obtaining a permit. In both cases, the billboards cannot be enlarged.

Representatives from both groups representing neighborhoods spoke favorably of the proposal, which aims to maintain local control where state lawmakers were planning to intervene.

“It protects from rampant proliferation of billboards while reiterating the importance of certain development standards that impact the aesthetics and the quality of life in our community,” Pat Andrews of the Alliance of Neighborhood Associations, told the committee.

The full City-County Council will vote on the proposal Dec. 2.