"Our benchmarks in the past were how many arrests you made, how many tickets you wrote, or how fast you responded to crime," said IMPD Deputy Chief Scott Haslar. "The problem with that is that it (the crime) has already happened."
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"It is almost a surgical approach we are going with," said Hasler. "Taking that part away from us so that we are getting rid of that element that is causing crime in the first place."
Marion County has been cut into a half-mile by half-mile grid. The part of the grid where crime numbers are the greatest, is where a higher concentration of law enforcement will be. Officers will be relocated to other grids or 'zones' if and when numbers fluctuate.
"We found city-wide, 15 of these grids are responsible for over 33 percent of all of our violent crime so it made perfect sense to have us on the East District to start focusing on these half-mile grids if we truly wanted double-digit reductions in crime in 2012," said Haslar.
Violent crime is up across the board so far in 2012 compared to last year, a double-digit increase in most cases. Of the city's six regions, the Downtown Region leads the way with a 40 percent increase in violent crime.
Chuck Coleman lives in Windsor Park on the city's east side. He has also seen crime numbers climb in his neighborhood. He looks forward to a time when things will be better.
"This is a positive step as far as I see," said Coleman. "It is something I think will make a difference.
Hasler said the goal of Zone Policing is to diffuse crime, to get rid of it in a particular area, but to also keep it from spreading.
"We can't arrest our way out of this problem, what we have got to do is get ahead of it and try and reduce crime," said Haslar.
