Wichita Police Department hears feedback from residents about assessment
Increased community policing and restructuring within the Wichita Police Department were hot-button topics of discussion at the Atwater Neighborhood Resource Center on Wednesday evening.
The Wichita Police Department on Wednesday hosted the first of its series of “community engagement meetings” to receive feedback on its organizational assessment, released by Wichita State University last month. The meeting was held at the resource center, just east of Grove on 19th Street.
About 20 people straggled in throughout the evening. Misty Bruckner, director of Wichita State’s Center for Urban Studies, presented and answered questions about the assessment. City Manager Robert Layton and Deputy Police Chief Hassan Ramzah also were present to answer questions.
The meeting, which lasted about an hour, got heated at times, though attendees said in general they thought the department was to be lauded for being willing to hear feedback.
“It’s our way of keeping Wichita from being a Ferguson, which I don’t think it will, because it’s Wichita,” said Marc Kemp, vice president of the newly formed Planeview Neighborhood Association. “The question is where do we go from here? Is the ball going to be put in the corner, or will we take action?”
David Brown, who described himself as a “concerned citizen,” said the turnout should have been higher.
“If you want to know what’s going on, you have to attend things like this,” he said. “We need to make things different for our youth.”
The Wichita Police Department will host three more community meetings in coming weeks:
▪ March 10, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Urban Prep Academy, NAACP, 2821 E. 24th St. North
▪ March 25, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Sunflower Community Action, 1751 N. Ash
▪ The department will release information at a later date about a meeting sponsored by the Wichita Crime Commission.
Reach Matt Riedl at 316-268-6660 or mriedl@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @riedlmatt.
This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Wichita Police Department hears feedback from residents about assessment."