Soon after taking control, Mears grabbed headlines by announcing the office would no longer prosecute people arrested for carrying small amounts of marijuana. This year, shortly before Indiana lawmakers gathered in Indianapolis to hammer out a statewide ban on abortions, Mears announced Marion County, home of the state capitol, would not prosecute anyone who violates that ban.
"There are inequities that exist in the criminal justice system and you think to yourself, 'Well, hey, if I ever got a chance to be in a leadership position, what can I do to try to make our system more fair?'" Mears said."And that's what we've tried to do with the prosecutor's office." "And that's why I think it's so important that we as a prosecutor's office can go into communities and say, 'These are the things that we can do right here right now to help. We're not trying to jam you up on civil possession of marijuana cases. We want to make sure we're focusing on violent crime. We want to make sure that we're helping you out with their child-support obligation.
Q: The FedEx shooting raised questions about how the prosecutor’s office uses Indiana’s Jake Laird/Red Flag law. What should the public understand about this law? Mears: "Well, the first thing that happened is the counsel helped us out tremendously. Our starting salary for new attorneys a year ago was $53,000. That was not a competitive wage. And so we were able to raise that to $60,000. ... So we're getting more financial resources to offer more competitive packages.
Mears is the reason you have to report record murder rates in Marion County.