August 2, 2021
Today, the City of South Bend announced that effective Jan. 1, 2022, the South Bend Police Department will take over homicide and all major crimes investigations within South Bend city limits from the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit and Special Victims Unit.
“We value regional collaboration and the work provided by these two metro units. We’ve done everything we can to keep them up and running, but we must adapt to our department’s staffing levels, which remain short of where they need to be,” said Mayor James Mueller. “This move will create greater staffing flexibility in 2022 and enable us to continue delivering critical law enforcement services for our residents. I have full confidence in our officers, and we will work with our partners in the County and Mishawaka to ensure a smooth transition. Our department will continue to collaborate with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor, St. Joseph County Police Department and Mishawaka Police Department.”
“The South Bend Police Department’s commitment to our community will remain the same and will not be negatively affected by this transition,” said Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski. “The majority of the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit and Special Victims Unit are made up of our detectives and personnel already. All cases will now be ‘in-house’ and the resources of our entire department will be at the disposal of every single victim and their family.
With the combined experience of our detectives, our continued alliance with the Family Justice and CASIE Centers, the YWCA, and our commitment to handling every single case with the utmost respect and professionalism, we are confident this will be a seamless transition.”
Background
In accordance with the interlocal agreement, the City of South Bend provided notice to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office in May that the South Bend Police Department (SBPD) would need greater staffing flexibility in 2022 due to projected officer retirements.
Over the last few years, SBPD has had ongoing conversations with the prosecutor’s office about staffing shortages that would force us to reduce the number of sworn officers in the Metro units. Prior to these conversations, concessions were made reducing the number of officers from 11 to 8 due to staffing shortages within the department. SBPD continued to contribute to this partnership by providing funding for 3 positions within Metro Homicide and SVU. The City of South Bend and St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office were unable to reach an agreement to further modify staffing within the units.
SBPD needs more officers. SBPD currently has 220 sworn officers, 23 short of being fully staffed, and faces several expected retirements at the beginning of 2022.
If you know someone interested in joining the city team and serving our community as a sworn officer, please encourage them to apply at police.southbendin.gov/apply.