Detective Ivan Ivanov was recognized as the IMPD North District Officer of the Month for December 2019 during a ceremony at North District Headquarters on Jan. 28th.

Members of Broad Ripple Post #3, the American Legion, also recognized Det. Ivanov at the ceremony.

The citation describing the Detective's work is below:

Along with his regular assigned cases, Detective Ivanov has investigated two high profile cases this past month. In each instance, he conducted a thorough investigation, which resulted in admissions by the suspects or findings of guilt during trial. The two cases outlined below stood out and had a direct impact on reducing violence in North District.

During an investigation of "shots fired" at 3001 N. Park, Detective Ivanov was led to 3105 N. Central. He learned that the one of the suspects in the shooting, had been involved in an ongoing dispute with the residents of the Park Ave address. This particular case involved juvenile suspects and the frequency of violence was escalating between the two households. On November 5th, Detective Ivanov served a search warrant on the Central Ave residence and recovered a 9mm handgun along with other evidence. This led to the arrest of a juvenile who was charged with various firearm offenses. A trial was held this past week, and the juvenile was found guilty, which was a direct result of Detective Ivanov's diligence in this case.

In another case, a juvenile was threatened, and his home was burglarized. Due to evidence left at the scene, it was believed the burglars were armed at the time of the break-in. Detective Ivanov was able to identify the suspects as North Central H.S. students. Subsequently, he prepared five separate search warrants and four DNA Buccal swap warrants. On November 14th, the North District Detective unit, with assistance from MND, MDT, and MNW uniform officers, served the search warrants simultaneously. This was done to prevent communication between the suspect's friends/family and preserve potential evidence in this case. At the same time, a separate team, consisting of MND officers, detectives, and Washington Township school police located the suspects at North Central and took them into custody. The warrant service was productive and resulted in one 9mm handgun being recovered, along with stolen property, cell phones, and a sizable amount of marijuana. The suspects were transported back to MND roll call and interviewed, where each admitted to their role in the burglary.

In both of these cases, the suspects were escalating their criminal conduct and increasing their level of violence against the victims. Detective Ivanov's perseverance in these cases not only helped prevent a more serious incident from occurring but was instrumental in ensuring the arrested juveniles were held accountable for their criminal behavior. The exact immediate and long term effect of these arrests may never be fully known. But Detective Ivanov's work in both of these cases undoubtedly contributed significantly to the prevention of a more serious crime. Detective Ivanov has earned a reputation as a tenacious investigator, which is evident in these two instances.