Unsolved IMPD case subject to AI investigation

INDIANAPOLIS – IMPD’s homicide clearance rate is above 70% for the first time in several years, well above recent levels of 40-50%.

Police Commissioner Chris Bailey attributes the higher clearance rate to a younger generation of detectives using cellphone tracking technology and social media analytics, as well as collecting evidence from license plate readers, surveillance cameras and DNA testing. In addition, detectives have fewer cases to investigate and more killings are being ruled justified, self-defense or accidental.

Now the IMPD has launched a pilot program with an ad hoc group of volunteers to use artificial intelligence to solve an unsolved murder case from over 20 years ago.

Ron Brumbarger, then of Apprentice University, and a handful of students tried another case in 2019, using a problem-solving system without AI.

“We were so close, Russ, we were so close to a circuit. All we could do was create a spark,” Brumbarger said, holding his finger and thumb less than an inch apart. “IMPD came to me a year and a half ago and said, ‘We have another case. Would you be willing to try it? Would you be willing to try it?’ I didn’t choose either of them, but this case is described by IMPD as a ‘banger.'”

Brumbarger said the unsolved murder case from decades ago was nothing special, but complicated and solvable.

“In both cases, IMPD has its prime suspect and is intentionally not telling us who that is,” Brumbarger said. “We want to come up with the same name or multiple names regardless of them.”

Brumbarger and his team of “seven super smart people” met twice in the last month, completed the digitization of 3,000 pages and documents and put their AI system into operation.

“We digitized everything. We took handwritten notes and ran them through AI and got a 90 percent accurate document, which is close enough for most of our work,” he said. “We want to do some more interviews with IMPD detectives to capture their thoughts that have developed since we discussed the case, which may or may not be in the documents they can give us.”

While Team Monocles offers its expertise free of charge and confidentially, Brumbarger is confident that the investigation can serve as a template that can be applied to future IMPD homicide investigations.

“There’s a lot of that, there’s a lot of that around the world, and there’s certainly a lot of that here in Indiana,” he said. “We’ve talked to some people who said, ‘Anything you create is not admissible in court.’ Well, you’re missing the point. We want to help IMPD say, ‘Wait a minute… there are two red pickup trucks? I thought there was only one.’ That’s a tip-off.”

Brumbarger’s volunteers have 90 days to investigate, and possibly an additional 30 days if the investigation goes well, before the case must be returned to IMPD.

Team Monocles has started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover some of the small costs of its investigation. Donations can be found online here.