Wichita may ban use of high-def surveillance system for minor traffic tickets

Soon, you may not have to worry about getting pulled over for a traffic infraction caught on Wichita’s new police surveillance cameras.

Police Chief Gordon Ramsay is drafting an ordinance to limit the use of the controversial camera network to solving and prosecuting serious crimes, not pulling people over for minor traffic flubs, a City Council member said Monday.

News of the city’s move to codify the use of cameras in crime-fighting comes as the council is poised to consider a plan to expand it’s high-definition surveillance system beyond Old Town. Police cameras in the popular nightlife district offer near 100-percent coverage day and night, with live images beamed to a control center at City Hall where they’re recorded.

The city installed the 70 cameras over the summer to monitor goings-on in Old Town, which has experienced periodic problems with shootings, fights and other crimes that tend to flare up around bars and nightclubs.

The system opened to favorable reviews from Old Town merchants, residents and workers.

But the city got a backlash in November when The Eagle learned that the $700,000 camera system was being used to monitor traffic and dispatch officers to write tickets for minor infractions.

On Tuesday, the City Council will consider a measure to spend $290,000 to expand camera coverage to other areas of the 1st Council District, which stretches from downtown to the northeastern part of the city.

City Council member Lavonta Williams, who is proposing the expansion, said she’s been assured the cameras won’t be used for minor matters.

“There is a camera ordinance being written, because what is it we really want the cameras to show us?” Williams said. “I don’t want to know that someone made a right turn and didn’t turn their signal on. And that’s not why we as a city began to look at cameras. It was definitely more than that and that ordinance is being written even as we speak.”

Police Chief Gordon Ramsay did not return a phone message seeking comment, but City Manager Robert Layton had foreshadowed changes in the use of cameras after the November controversy.

If the council approves expansion of camera coverage, the locations won’t be decided until after a period of public comment, Williams said.

It could be another site downtown, or a crime hot spot elsewhere in the 1st District, Williams said.

Williams said she’s particularly worried right now about the area around North Estelle, where last week, a 15-year-old girl got hit by a stray bullet from a gang shooting while walking through the living room in her home.

Funding for the expansion of camera coverage would come from the 1st District’s share of money the city got from selling the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

A possible alternative might be to deploy a system called “Shot Spotter,” according to a city report.

That system detects and provides police with location information when a firearm is discharged in a covered area, the report said.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Wichita may ban use of high-def surveillance system for minor traffic tickets."