INDIANAPOLIS — Operation Domestic Disruption, an initiative by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and several other agencies, saw great success during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This included IMPD serving a total of 19 warrants in a five-day span. 

The goal is to help victims of domestic violence across the city, especially when cases are becoming more common.

“We just saw an increase [in domestic violence cases], and we suspected that to subside as the pandemic started to subside and when we didn’t, we decided we needed to take a more active approach,” said Maj. Seth Ferrell with IMPD’s Criminal Investigations Division.

IMPD works with several different organizations along with local and federal agencies to make this initiative as successful as it is now. That includes the Indy Champions for Domestic Violence Prevention program.

“No agency can do this alone,” said Danyette Smith with Indy Champions. “We are in this together.”

The hope is to put a stop to the rising trend of domestic violence throughout Indianapolis, and people across the city are starting to see the impact. That includes Danyette Smith who is also a survivor of domestic violence.

“I think it has been tremendously successful for us, for law enforcement, to apprehend that many violent criminals here in the city of Indianapolis,” she said. “I know moving forward we will be able to definitely get more as we continue to do these operations.”

Since January, there have been a total of three different initiatives through Operation Domestic Disruption with the most recent happening from Oct. 23-27. IMPD said the collaborative efforts with local and federal agencies resulted in a total of 46 arrests since January with 19 of those happening in the latest operation.

The most recent arrest was of 27-year-old Kylan Oliver who was wanted on a local domestic battery warrant and a federal warrant.

“We want to make sure we are targeting the worst of the worst, and we believe that the 19 we apprehended and the 13 still at large that we are still continuing to search for are those individuals and by doing so we are making the community safer and helping those victims get support,” Maj. Ferrell said. “It’s good for us to be able to take action, especially on these violent cases, and get these individuals in custody and get some accountability.”