The Wichita police citizens board checked more complaints this year than the last five years

The Wichita Police Department closed nearly twice as many complaints about officer conduct in 2023 as it did five years ago, but the department says that shouldn’t set off alarms. Instead, it’s a sign of progress.

The department resolved 359 complaints in 2019 compared to 646 last year.

The increase stems from gradual changes with both the investigation process at WPD and the types of complaints seen by its Citizens Review Board.

Capt. Jason Bartel, who oversees the Professional Standards Bureau, the department’s internal affairs unit, said the growth shows the evolution in WPD’s handling of complaints, including reviewing old ones.

“There had been complaints brought to my attention that were several years old,” Bartel said. “We have been working to review and close those.”

Reports for the citizens panel expanded to include more types of complaints, which can come from community members or internally from supervisors. Deputy Chief Travis Easter, the liaison who creates the reports for the CRB, said more minor infractions of police policy started to be cataloged and presented.

“The (Citizens Review Board) wanted to see more,” Easter said. “So we started to give them more.”

The changes resulted in 300 more complaints closed than five years ago. And while mostly seen as positive by the WPD, the large output has revealed more cracks in the process.

How does WPD process complaints?

Complaints can come from four places : community members, other employees of the WPD, a supervisor or the police chief.

Police supervisors often handle minor complaints, such as errors on a citation or not turning in paperwork on time.

The standards bureau investigates more serious allegations, such as unnecessary force, improperly handling evidence or an officer treating a citizen rudely. Just over half of the complaints received by the board last year were considered serious, requiring an internal affairs investigation.

An investigation typically includes interviewing the officers and residents involved, reviewing body cam footage and examining any supporting documents.

Most investigations are completed in the month they are received.

“Our goal is always to handle complaints as quick as possible,” Bartel said.

Once an investigation is completed, it is given one of four labels:

• Unfounded : The allegation is false or not factual.
• Exonerated: The incident occurred but was lawful and proper.
• Not sustained : Insufficient evidence exists to prove or disprove the allegation.
• Sustained : The allegation is supported by sufficient evidence to justify a reasonable conclusion of guilt.

The complaints are presented to the review board. Members can ask for more details of the investigation.

If the Citizens Review Board finds something improper occurred, it can notify the police chief, but it has no power to reopen an investigation or perform its own investigation.

What can be learned from the 2023 complaints?

Over half of the 646 complaints closed in 2023 were found to be true. Complaints ranged from an officer not responding to emails on time to rude conduct to officers using deadly force.

Most were for minor mistakes and resulted in coaching and mentoring of the officers involved.

But others had much more serious consequences.

Ten complaints resulted in suspensions, and six officers were fired.

The reasons for termination were an employee repeatedly violating sick leave policy, an officer lying to internal investigators, two officers committing felonies, an officer using force beyond what is permitted and an officer making threatening statements to a citizen while off duty.

Twenty-five of the complaints involved officers not turning on body cameras when necessary or improperly labeling body camera footage. Most cases resulted in a written reprimand or a warning. One officer was suspended and another was terminated, but each case had multiple violations. Only one case was found to be untrue.

Twenty-one complaints alleged unnecessary force. Of those, investigators found nine to be true. None resulted in termination.

Investigators determined 131 of the cases were “unfounded” and the actions alleged did not occur.

One-tenth of all of the complaints were found to be “not sustained,” lacking enough evidence to prove or disprove the allegations.

A smaller number of complaints, 48 of them, were “exonerated,” or the actions complained about did happen but were within regulation.

Issues remain in the complaint process

In an audit issued last year, consulting firm Jensen Hughes identified internal investigations and the citizen review board as areas needing improvement.

The audit made seven recommendations to give the review board more power and purpose.

WPD is working with the Public Policy and Management Center at Wichita State University to refine the review board’s role.

Previous members of the board have questioned the accuracy of complaints presented to them and the public.

“It’s something we heard complaints about,” said Michael Birzer, a professor of criminal justice at WSU and helping with the project.

He said trust had been broken between the review board and the police department, but he was hopeful that it could be rebuilt.

“Something such as including them in open investigations could help,” Birzer said. “If it means more transparency, it can only be a good thing.”

Also, turnover — partially caused by frustrations with transparency — might help create a fresh start. Six of 13 review board members started this month, and one seat remains open.

Better recordkeeping needed in Wichita Police Department

The review board also complained about needing more information and more accurate information. The members noted problems with how complaints are recorded.

The Jensen Hughes report also noted that more information on each case should be presented to the board.

“A complainant alleged officers were rude to him,” were all the details provided in one report. Another only said, “A complainant alleged officers used force, causing injury.”

The list of complaints given to the board has clear inconsistencies.

Bartel says any supervisor can enter a complaint and there is no standard policy for categorizing complaints.

New categories are generated for specific allegations, such as not turning on a body cam, but those categories are not always used. Instead, supervisors often rely on more generic labels.

Two-thirds of the allegations fell under the categories “general duty responsibilities,” “insubordination” and “contact with citizen.”

A file that alleged officers used unnecessary force and mistreated the woman making the complaint and her children was labeled insubordination, but more precisely, it could have been labeled unnecessary force.

Another complaint over an officer failing to call in sick was classified as general duty responsibilities — not misuse of sick days, a label used for other similar cases.

Previous police chief Gordon Ramsay ordered a complaint investigation regarding Cedric Lofton’s arrest. While having a mental health crisis, 17-year-old Lofton was strapped down by WPD and transported to the juvenile intake facility in Wichita, where he would later die from being restrained by staff . The investigation concluded in 2023, exonerating the officers involved, finding they did take the alleged actions but they were within department regulations.

Lofton’s family has alleged excessive use of force, improper conduct and officers not following procedure. This case was labeled as “general duty responsibilities.”

What comes next for WPD’s complaints?

Bartel recognizes issues still exist with the records, such as limitations with their recordkeeping software.

“There will definitely be some checks and balances put in place for the transfer of data,” he said.

Easter and Bartel must run multiple reports and manually combine them to get all the complaints presented to the review board. Bartel said that it can sometimes cause human error.

Easter, the WPD liaison to the review board, said he will continue to work on answering any questions the board may have.

“It’s confusing, for sure,” he said. “But that’s why I am there, to help make it less confusing.”

A set of responsibilities and objectives for the CRB is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.

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