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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita went on social media this week to urge President Donald Trump to send the U.S. National Guard to Indianapolis, saying the city needs “law and order restored.”
On X, Rokita said the president should add Indianapolis to the growing list of cities where he has deployed the National Guard to fight crime.
“It would be welcomed to get this violence under control,” he said.
The comments were made in response to another X post, stating that in Indy over the weekend, at least 14 people were shot and four were stabbed.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department did not directly confirm those numbers. But several news reports from over the weekend noted various shootings, including an incident at the downtown Hovito lounge on Nov. 2.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a statement to The Lawyer that he discourages any request for a National Guard intervention, saying it “would not make Indianapolis a safer city.”
“To further our progress in reducing gun violence, what Indianapolis needs is gun laws that make it harder for young people to obtain firearms, police with greater authority to hold problem bars accountable, and for individuals to stop turning to guns to resolve conflict,” Hogsett said.
A spokesperson with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun’s office did not respond to The Lawyer’s request to answer questions about whether the governor agrees with Rokita.
Trump’s use of the National Guard began this summer in California, against the wishes of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, and has grown to five targeted cities: Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
State leaders in California, Chicago and Oregon have challenged the Trump administration in court. So far, the decisions have been mixed: many local and state courts have sided with the state, but several federal courts have reversed those decisions on appeal.
The administration has appealed the Illinois case to the U.S. Supreme Court, after a federal judge temporarily blocked National Guard operations in Chicago and Illinois following a lawsuit by the city and state. The administration first appealed to the U.S Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, but that court upheld the lower court’s ruling. The case has been appealed again, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision could set a precedent for how the Guard can be used in the future.
This is not the first time Rokita has publicly invited troops to Indiana. Last month, Rokita joined “The Matt Gaetz Show,” a right-leaning television show hosted by former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, to discuss various matters, such as the state’s immigration crackdown efforts and redistricting.
‘We are ready, willing and able to help President Trump get this mess cleaned up,” Rokita said. “I invite President Trump to bring the National Guard to cities like Indianapolis, which has a higher crime rate than Chicago, per capita.”
According to security.org, using FBI statistics, Indianapolis had a violent crime rate of 877.9 per 100,000 people in 2024, placing it in the top 10 most violent U.S. cities for that year.
Although crime has been high compared to other cities, The Indianapolis Star reported earlier this year that, in the first six months of 2025, there had been a significant dip in year-to-date deaths compared to the past five years.
“At a time when over 100,000 Indianapolis residents are facing food insecurity, when the cost of goods and services residents rely on is skyrocketing, when families are making difficult decisions regarding paying bills or buying their child a toy for the holidays, we are not looking for ‘support’ in the form of armed troops in our neighborhoods,” Hogsett said. ”
“The City of Indianapolis remains focused on our gun violence reduction strategy, which has driven significant reductions in criminal homicides and non-fatal shootings in our community since 2022,” he added.
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