I’m doing some research this morning in preparation for tomorrow night’s Mayoral Budget address.  I’ve already gone over some arts funding figures, parks department numbers, and the possible privatization of the Mayor’s Action Center.

But what’s really interesting is when you start moving into specific areas and certain line items. Take this one for example.  A review of contracts between the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and Counsel to the Sheriff, Kevin Murray, has revealed some interesting information.

By my count, Murray has five separate contracts with MCSD and they are all two-year deals.  Here’s what they are for and how they cost.

• General Counsel Services - $83,442.45 annual retainer.
• Pension Board Services - Up to $60,000 annually.
• Jail Overcrowding - Up to $100,000 annually.
• Labor & Employment - Up to $75,000 annually for services provided to the Sheriff’s Department.
• Labor & Employment - Up to $100,000 annually for services provided to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Making a couple assumptions, Murray was potentially getting paid $836,884.90.  Of course you would have to take into account Frank Anderson no longer controls IMPD as of March of this year and it’s faulty to assume Murray would bill MCSD every last possible dime, but you have to admit, in a day where the city is already $26 million in the hole, six figures ain’t bad take home pay.

There is another story of another IMPD officer getting in story. This story is on the heals of another IMPD officer who got in trouble and three other IMPD officers who got in trouble. And they are not to be confused with the former Public Safety Advisor turned Marion County Sheriff employee who is also in trouble.

While it is important to know that these handful of bad apples are not representative of the other 2,000 or so men and women of law enforcement who go to work everyday to protect us and keep our streets safe, they do give cops a bad name. Of course it doesn’t help that all this bad news comes at one time.

While the officers are ultimately responsible for their actions, you can’t ignore another individual who also bears some responsibility for this, Sheriff Frank Anderson. When Anderson ran IMPD, the department ended its polygraph practices, which some top officials in the department tell me could have been a deterrent to some of this behavior. Anderson was also in charge when another one of these officers was reportedly kicked out of the Police Academy and rehired under IMPD. And it was Anderson who hired Jerry McCorry.

It was Anderson’s leadership that set the atomosphere that allowed this type of behavior to grow and now Mayor Greg Ballard is cleaning up his mess and cleansing the air he left behind.