In contemporary scholarship surrounding the police state, there has been a recent increase in the amount of research being conducted on the overall utility of a police state as well as perceptions of the police and their interactions with certain groups. These discoveries place emphasis on the shortcomings of contemporary policies and practices with an aim to garner change. Less is known about historical accounts of police function and proper analysis of these operations as foundations for current police departments. And the scholarship that does take this approach takes place in larger cities with historically aggressive and invasive police states, including Memphis, Detroit, and Chicago. Even less than that is the research examining the function of the police state and its discriminatory practices in smaller cities, such as Indianapolis. What is the language surrounding historical instances of police brutality? What does the history of police in Indianapolis tell us about the community at large? The purpose of this paper will be to outline and analyze the historical functions of the police in the Black community in Indianapolis through the eyes of those most affected. The ultimate goal of this paper is to not shape a new paradigm around policing, specifically referring to the extensive, scholarly work that is out there regarding policing as a form of social control. Rather, this paper supports said scholarship and seeks to understand what that social control component looks like in the city of Indianapolis. What does the current literature say about these functions, and do they hold true in a place such as the city of Indianapolis? How can understanding the city of Indianapolis inform the function of other mid-level cities? These questions will be examined as well as a brief textual analysis of the Indianapolis Recorder, a Black run newspaper that was dedicated to bringing about the truth of social inequality in the city. Through examination of the different articles released each week, one can begin to understand the language surrounding public safety within the city as well as the ways in which the Black community is often required to take matters of safety into their own hands.