Indianapolis Downtown Safety Ambassadors
Safer Cities | Safety Ambassadors Series | City Profile 2 of 3
Program at a Glance
Location: Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana (Mile Square district)
Operator: Downtown Indy, Inc. (business alliance)
Institutional home: Business alliance / Business Improvement District (BID) model
Deployment area: Mile Square (the central downtown Indianapolis commercial core)
Operating hours: Primarily daytime and early evening, weekdays
Significance: Among the most narratively documented commercial district ambassador programs in the national record; profiled in depth by the Washington Post as an example of the model in action
Political context: Indiana is a Republican-governed state; Indianapolis is a mid-size city with mixed politics, making this one of the few deeply-documented ambassador programs outside politically progressive coastal urban contexts
Background
Indianapolis faced the pattern common to many Midwestern downtowns in the years following the pandemic: concerns about safety perception in the commercial core, high police response times for non-emergency calls, and business community anxiety about whether the downtown environment was recovering its commercial vitality.
Downtown Indy, Inc., the central business alliance that manages marketing, programming, and services for the Mile Square commercial district, launched the Safety Ambassador program as part of a broader effort to address those concerns through presence and service rather than enforcement. The program explicitly positioned ambassadors as a connection between the public and law enforcement: not replacing police, but serving as “the connective fiber between the people in downtown and law enforcement,” in the words of Downtown Indy’s president and chief executive officer.[1]
The program operates in a politically distinct context from West Hollywood or San Francisco. Indiana’s state government and most of its congressional delegation are Republican; Indianapolis’s city government is more mixed. The ambassador program was designed and is operated by a business alliance, not by a progressive municipal government. This context makes Indianapolis one of the clearest demonstrations that the ambassador model is not dependent on progressive political framing to gain traction.
How the Program Works
Scope. Ambassadors patrol the Mile Square (the roughly square mile that constitutes downtown Indianapolis’s commercial and civic core). The area includes office buildings, restaurants, hotels, the convention center, and mixed-use streetscape.
Daily operations. The most detailed picture of how the Indianapolis program works comes from the Washington Post’s profile of ambassador Scott Person, a retired military veteran who patrols from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday in a red jacket emblazoned with “Safety Ambassador.”[2]
Person’s documented daily activities in the Washington Post profile:
- Helping a man with schizophrenia who hadn’t eaten in four days get access to a meal
- Mediating a potential conflict between building workers and a person sleeping on the sidewalk outside an entrance
- Giving directions and answering questions from visitors and commuters
- Listening to resident and business concerns
- Serving as a recognizable, consistent presence that people approach before situations escalate
Person carries no weapon and describes his role as “an agent of deterrence, betting that most people won’t break the law around someone dressed like a security guard.”[3] He does not claim to be a substitute for police — when situations require enforcement, he calls police. What he provides is the consistent, visible, helpful presence that no police patrol was providing at the frequency and relational depth the commercial district needed.
The military veteran dimension. Person’s background as a retired veteran is not incidental. Programs in Indianapolis, Arlington, and other cities find that military veterans bring a specific combination of comfort with authority, physical presence, de-escalation training from military contexts, and community-service orientation that makes them effective ambassadors. Arlington, Texas operations manager Kevin Johnson is also a 20-year Air Force veteran.[4] The pattern of veteran staffing in ambassador programs is documented in at least Indianapolis, Arlington, and Gainesville, and reflects both mission alignment and the availability of veterans seeking second-career community service roles.
The Business Alliance Model
Indianapolis’s program is operated by Downtown Indy, Inc. rather than by city government. Downtown Indy’s president and CEO described ambassadors as “the connective fiber between the people in downtown and law enforcement.”[5]
The coverage area is the Mile Square commercial district. Neighborhoods outside the commercial core — residential areas, lower-income commercial corridors — are not covered.
Public Reception
The Washington Post’s profile documents the quality of the program’s reception in a specific, reported way: near the end of a documented shift, a man approaches Scott Person and says, “Just wanted to say thank you for what you do… it makes a difference.”[6] The gratitude is from a random member of the public, not a program stakeholder or business partner.
The Police Relationship
Indianapolis’s ambassador program explicitly designs for coordination with police rather than competition. The police relationship is documented in both the Washington Post profile (Person calling police when situations exceed ambassador scope) and in the organizational framing (ambassadors as “connective fiber between the people in downtown and law enforcement”).[5]
Indianapolis has not published police workload reduction data.
What’s Missing from the Record
Several important dimensions of the Indianapolis program are underdocumented in publicly available sources:
Budget figures. Unlike Denver’s Ballpark program (documented at $1.3 million annually) or West Hollywood (documented 5-to-1 cost ratio), specific budget figures for the Indianapolis program are not in publicly available reporting.
Activity metrics. The Washington Post profile documents a day in the life of one ambassador; program-level activity data (contacts, service connections, situations requiring police backup) has not been published in publicly available sources.
Staff size and coverage. The number of ambassadors and their total coverage hours is not documented in available reporting. The profile documents a single ambassador’s shift; the total program scope is not characterized with specificity.
Outcomes for vulnerable individuals engaged. Whether the man with schizophrenia that Person helped access a meal received ongoing support, or whether any of the daily encounters Person has with people in need lead to lasting service engagement, is not tracked in available documentation.
These gaps reflect the general documentation challenge for ambassador programs: much of the record of what they do lives in news profiles, business community statements, and city reports rather than in systematic program evaluation.
The Political Context
Indiana is a Republican-governed state. Indianapolis’s city government is more mixed. The ambassador program was designed and is operated by a business alliance with commercial interests, not by a progressive municipal government. The program is explicitly framed around police support rather than police substitution.
Bottom Line
Indianapolis’s Downtown Safety Ambassadors represent the business alliance model for commercial district ambassador programs. Operated by Downtown Indy, Inc. in a politically mixed state, designed explicitly around police support rather than competition, the program’s documented limitations — no published outcome data, limited geographic scope, no independent evaluation — reflect the evidence base of the field broadly.
Sources
[1] WTHR 13 Indianapolis, “Inside look at ‘Downtown Safety Ambassador’ program.” Taylor Schaffer, President and CEO of Downtown Indy, quoted. https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/inside-look-at-downtown-indianapolis-safety-ambassador-program/531-76c4c003-1635-4fb6-b8c3-2da6f3808ad6 (paywall)
[2] Washington Post, Danielle Paquette, “Indianapolis ‘safety ambassadors’ aim to ease fears, boost downtown,” November 1, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/01/safety-ambassador-indianapolis-cities-crime/ (paywall)
[3] Washington Post, Danielle Paquette, “Indianapolis ‘safety ambassadors’ aim to ease fears, boost downtown,” November 1, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/01/safety-ambassador-indianapolis-cities-crime/ (paywall)
[4] The Shorthorn, Christine Vo, July 15, 2024. https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/arlington-ambassadors-pour-hearts-into-keeping-downtown-clean-safe/article_fd490de6-4179-11ef-a210-5360bac5d3ec.html
[5] WTHR 13 Indianapolis, Lauren Kostiuk, “Downtown ‘safety ambassadors’ aim to keep Mile Square safe.” Taylor Schaffer, President and CEO of Downtown Indy, quoted. https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/inside-look-at-downtown-indianapolis-safety-ambassador-program/531-76c4c003-1635-4fb6-b8c3-2da6f3808ad6 (paywall)
[6] Washington Post, Danielle Paquette, November 1, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/01/safety-ambassador-indianapolis-cities-crime/ (paywall)