‘More than slaps on the wrist’: Police chief, council member call for more punishment

Wichita interim police chief Lem Moore said the punishment given to officers who sent racist and inappropriate messages wasn’t enough and he is open to the idea of additional discipline. City Council member Brandon Johnson said some of the officers should be terminated.

It’s not yet clear if additional punishment is an option.

Moore, who is Black, said the coaching and mentoring given to some officers and the reprimand to a white officer who sent a photoshopped image of a naked Black man sitting on George Floyd was “not appropriate discipline.”

He wouldn’t talk in detail about all the cases, but did say he wouldn’t fire the officer who sent the Floyd photo. That officer apologized to Moore.

“I don’t believe he is an evil person. I believe it was just bad taste, very poor taste,” he said.

Moore said a multi-day suspension without pay should have been given. Instead, that officer was given a written reprimand.

Johnson said the Wichita officers who sent the racist photo — it was sent by a white and a Black officer — and officers involved in a thread about shooting people should be fired.

“I’ve said I want them terminated,” he said. “Race does not matter. If we are being equitable and just then whoever was involved, even if they were all Black people, they shouldn’t be a part of our department.”

The Wichita officers didn’t start the thread about shooting people, a sheriff’s deputy did. But Johnson was concerned that they didn’t denounce what was said.

“I think there should be another consequence,” he said. “I’m not opposed to terminating everybody involved in that. But there should definitely be more than the slaps on the wrists that we saw.”

Moore became chief March 1, after the investigation and punishment had been handled. The only officer suspended or put on leave was one who called former chief Gordon Ramsay a tool.

The Eagle first detailed the messages and punishment in a March 21 story. Moore and City Manager Robert Layton didn’t return calls from the Eagle for comment for a week or more before the story.

They broke their silence the next day, with Layton announcing a third-party investigation into the department’s handling of the case and hiring a company to review the department’s culture and best practices of the Citizen’s Review Board, which originally was missing key details when it reviewed the case.

Layton expects to have the third-party investigation findings next week.

He said he asked investigators to look at the department’s handling of the case and if additional punishment is an option. He said some of the document will be legal advice on “what my powers are on discipline and issues like that,” but he plans to make the rest of the document available to the public. Legal advice is exempt from the public record.

“I want to share as much as I can,” he said.

In a historic release of information, the Citizen’s Review Board on Tuesday offered a 27-page report that detailed the messages and punishment given to officers.

Layton would not comment about the punishments ahead of reviewing the investigative findings.

Layton said local ordinances, Wichita police department policy and the Fraternal Order of Police contract would be the main things that could affect whether additional punishment is an option. Layton said he won’t make any decisions on his own, but with input from Moore.

FOP Lodge 5 president David Inkelaar did not respond to a text message asking about the possibility of additional punishment.

Messages sent

The messages came to light in April 2021 when investigators searched the phone of a Sedgwick County deputy accused in an unrelated domestic violence case.

A dozen Wichita officers, all who have served on the SWAT team, and three deputies were investigated for what was found on the deputy’s phone.

The deputies sent racist, homophobic and sexist memes and messages. None of them now work for the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.

None of the Wichita officers appear to have been forced out because of the messages.

Racist and inappropriate messages from Wichita officers were sent between December 2015 and February 2021. The dozen Wichita officers included a captain, four sergeants, one detective and six officers, with tenure ranging from 11 to 27 years.

The captain who called Ramsay a “(expletive) tool” retired on his own after 27 years with the department. The only other person who left was an 11-year officer who resigned. He was involved in two investigations, including one where officers talked about shooting people.

Nine of the 12 Wichita officers, including the officer who resigned, have been involved in one or two shootings. The deputy whose phone was searched, and also served on the SWAT team, has been involved in two shootings.

The messages all involve the deputy, since it was his phone that was seized.

The officer who sent the Floyd photo sent it to that deputy.

Police originally thought that officer sent it to multiple officers. It was later learned he sent it only to the deputy after investigators re-examined the case following the Eagle’s story.

‘Pure evil’

Moore called the photo pure evil.

“Poor taste, I mean, horrible, dark, ugly humor that is not humor, it’s just disgraceful,” he said. “It’s bad. It’s evil. It’s as evil as the actual act when the incident took place … To me, when I saw that, that was pure evil.”

Also since the Eagle’s story, police have learned that officer was sent that photo by a Black officer, who is currently under investigation.

“The dilemma now is how do you discipline this person?” Moore said. “He is African American. Is he being discriminatory, is he being a racist? He was the one that originally sent it. And so, those are ugly factors that have to be taken into consideration. I wish they would have taken it into consideration last year, when this was fresh.”

He added: “They were trying to be funny in their warped way, and we are paying for it.”

The officer who had already been investigated was given a written reprimand.

Out of the remaining 11 Wichita officers, eight were given “non-discipline education/coaching and mentoring” for what they wrote and one was given “non-discipline education,” according to the CRB summaries of the cases. Among the last two officers, one resigned and the other retired before a final punishment had been determined, though the one who retired was suspended or put on leave before then.

“Written reprimand is not appropriate discipline,” Moore said. “Coaching and mentoring isn’t appropriate discipline.”

Moore also talked about the case involving the officers who talked about shooting people. All of them have shot or killed people.

About the majority of officers being involved in shootings, Moore said he isn’t going to dive into cases where officers have been legally cleared in a shooting.

“We are in business to stop the threat if there is a serious threat out there,” he said.

Moore said the conversation a few officers had about shooting people was disturbing.

“People deal with stuff differently and that team started dealing with things through their masculinity and conversation, which is why they went the direction they went,” he said. “It’s disturbing and it bothers me that they would have that conversation.”

Moore said you have to consider their reasons for sending the messages and history with the department before determining what a proper punishment would have been. He would not say what he felt was an appropriate punishment.

This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 10:22 AM.