MATT DEL BUSTO & MATTHEW FLECKENSTEIN | STAFF REPORTERS

City officials will be leading a neighborhood walk in the Butler-Tarkington area Nov. 17 and 18. 

“We literally go door-to-door and talk to neighbors,” said Julie Fidler, a housing and services specialist for the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety. “If you see us, say hi. It’s supposed to be a fun thing. We really want to get out and connect with you and get to know folks by name.”

Overtime patrols in the Butler-Tarkington area have increased.  There have been up to four officers per day assigned specifically to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Zone 10, which includes the Butler-Tarkington area.  The primary mission is to gather intelligence to combat guns and drugs.

Officers worked almost 400 overtime hours in October alone.  Overtime hours will continue into November and months to follow, said Officer Michael Maxwell, a community resource liaison for the IMPD for the North District.

Additionally, Maxwell said he and other on-duty officers were assigned extra patrols either on foot or on a bicycle.

When not performing other duties such as serving warrants, the special weapons and tactics quick reaction force is assigned to patrol the Butler-Tarkington area several times per week.

“They are in both the covert and overt capacity, working directly with narcotics,” Maxwell said. “They have gotten the Indiana state police assigned two or three officers a day to focus enforcement in the Butler-Tarkington area with the boundaries of the 38th Street corridor during the month of October.”

Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood Association meetings are held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the second Monday of every month at the Martin Luther King Community Center, located on W. 40th Street between Illinois Street and Meridian Street.