Gary Police Department Establishes Policy of Violating Rights

June 20th, 2018 Officer Isaiah Price III responded to a call at the O’Bannon Building on Broadway in Gary, IN for an individual that was violating a protective order and trespassing. When Price arrived on scene he interacted with the alleged perpetrator. That individual informed Price that he was never served with a protective order so therefore if there had been one he was not aware of one and therefore not in violation.

At that time Officer Price asked the suspect for his ID. The suspect refused to ID as Price did not have authority under Indiana statute to ID the suspect for that purpose. Furthermore the suspects identity is protected under the 5th amendment for that purpose. Price then placed the suspect under arrest for failure to ID as heard by the audio recording of the incident in order to falsely assume authority to search the suspects pockets for weapons and forcefully obtain his ID without consent.

Officer Price after obtaining the ID checked it with the printed protection order given to him by building security. Since the name “seemed” to match he then changed the charge to trespassing – violation of a protective order. Note he had already been informed that the order was never served on this individual and the name on the order did not exactly match the name on the ID. Any reasonable officer would check the resources available to him and the general public to determine if the order was not only for this individual but also served and enforceable. Officer Price, however, did not do these things. Instead, he colluded with private security to trump up false charges of battery by bodily waste to justify his earlier 4th and 5th amendment rights violations against this individual and the failure to ID charge. The audio recording taken of the incident proves these allegations to be false based on what is heard in the audio and seen in the video.

The way this interaction played out and rights violations could’ve been avoided if the Gary Police Department would’ve taken appropriate action in 2013 when Officer Price admitted to lying on reports and assaulting a juvenile by punching him unprovoked in the stomach. This was uncovered by an investigation we conducted steaming from the June 2018 interaction at the O’Bannon building.

The verified complaint we uncovered details that on May 2, 2013 Officer Price III struck a “non combative and cooperating juvenile, who at the time was cooperating with officers orders”. Price “failed to report this to his supervisor” and “failed to have the juvenile checked for medical injuries”. He also denied at two seperate administrative interviews that he struck the juvenile and omitted it from all reports.

In August of 2013 Price admitted to then Deputy Chief he was untruthful to IA and then went back to IA to report that he in fact struck the juvenile. The verified complaint states that he violated the following standards; truefullness, use of force, professional conduct, conduct unbecoming, and falsifying reports. The complaint filed also shows that Price committed a violation of Indiana law IC 35-42-2-1 Battery – (c) Except as provided in subsections (d) through (k), a person who knowingly or intentionally:
(1) touches another person in a rude, insolent, or angry manner;  or
(2) in a rude, insolent, or angry manner places any bodily fluid or waste on another person;
commits battery, a Class B misdemeanor.

Public records show that Price was not charged with Battery and allowed to continue with his employment at the Gary Police Department. This action then leads to other suspected rights violations. On April 26th, 2016 Tasha Banks filed a civil rights lawsuit against Officer Isaiah Price III alledging several rights violations. The case was dismissed according to court records due to the enforma paupers being denied and the plaintiff not paying the filing fee. In January of 2019 Edward Michael Strauss filed a civil rights suit against Officer Price III, it was accepted by the court and the case is still pending.

This detailed accumulation of events, the lack of appropriate action following these incidents, and recent events of resigned officer Nicretia Jones and the lack of charges of unlawful confinement in that situation would lead any reasonable person to determine that the Gary Police Department and the City of Gary have developed and continually carry out a policy of willingly allowing citizens rights to be violated without consequence. Isaiah Price III is still an active duty officer of the Gary Police Department. When will this policy stop and officers be held accountable for their actions?

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