Greencastle native among demoted IMPD officers

Pierce

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Greencastle native who was promoted in February to assistant chief of police at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) has now been demoted.

Darryl Pierce was one of three high-ranking IMPD officers to lose his rank.

According to a report in the Indianapolis Star, the announcement of the demotions of Pierce, Assistant Chief Ron Hicks and Commander Jon Conley was made late last week by Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, Public Safety Director Frank Straub and IMPD Chief Paul Ciesielski.

The demotions happened as a result of the officers' lack of leadership in what has been described as a "botched" investigation of drunk driving charges against IMPD Officer David Bisard.

The three officers all worked an accident on Aug. 6, when Bisard's cruiser struck a group of motorcyclists. One man was killed in the accident.

The IMPD works on a merit system, so all three officers will return to the ranks they held before their most recent promotions.

Pierce was born and grew up in Greencastle. He graduated from Greencastle High School, where he had been a member of the basketball, football and baseball teams, in 1969.

After graduating from GHS, Pierce studied secondary education at Indiana University. He moved to Indianapolis in 1973, and was hired by the Indianapolis Police Department in the spring of1980.

During his 30 years with the IMPD, Pierce had been promoted several times.

He had served on the Chief of Police's Executive Staff for 10 years, and, before his most recent promotion, had served as the commander of the Indianapolis Downtown District since 2007.

He had served in positions in such areas as narcotics, internal affairs, prosecutor's office, criminal investigations and human resources. He had earned many awards for bravery, merit and leadership.

In October 2009, he applied for the position of public safety director (which oversees the police and fire departments, as well as emergency management) and was selected by the nine-member search committee as one of the four finalists out of 125 applicants nationwide.

As a result of the accident and the subsequent demotions, Straub said, the IMPD was planning on having an outside agency review the department's policies and procedures.