After demands for reform, Wichita police chief addresses policy changes
Organizations with demands for Wichita police reform had mixed feelings about Thursday’s announcement of changes at the Police Department.
The Wichita Racial Profiling Advisory Board and Project Justice ICT were two of the groups that submitted demands to the Wichita Police Department in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes last month. Floyd’s death has led to widespread protests and demands for police reform.
On Thursday, Police Chief Gordon Ramsay announced the department’s response to demands by the groups. The 16-page document, available at wichita.gov/wpd, addressed 16 demands.
In more than half of the demands, the document says the department had already been taking steps on them before Floyd’s death. It then noted that the department had since modified some, including adding “new language” to the policies on choke holds, officers intervening when another officer uses excessive force and rendering aid.
Ramsay said the department didn’t agree with some of the demands. Other demands, such as renegotiating contracts with the Fraternal Order of Police, were not addressed. Advisory board vice-chair Walt Chappell said they want contracts to address only wages and not hinder the department’s ability to discipline officers.
“The feeling overall is it’s a good start,” said Chappell. “We are very excited about (Ramsay’s) effort to bring some long-overdue reform.”
Project Justice ICT executive director Gabrielle Griffie said the changes seemed like “superficial reforms.”
“It just seems like they said: ‘We agree. We are listening. Here is what we are already doing,’” Griffie said. “It just seemed like it was a bunch of pandering.”
During a 10-minute news conference Thursday, Ramsay, alongside city officials, said the document was the start of the process.
“... We don’t view the document that you have before you today as an end of this process but rather a continuation of the ongoing dialogue,” he said.
About the demand to defund police, Ramsay said the department has been working for years to address the underlying idea of the demand: that funds that currently go to police should instead go to services to help vulnerable people.
He mentioned the department has operated the Homeless Outreach Team, the ICT1 team to work with people with mental health, and has been applying for grants to hire social workers since he took over in 2016.
Previously, the department didn’t allow choke holds, knee holds and strangleholds unless an officer’s life was in danger. Since the demands, the department added new language to its policy, according to the document.
“Officers are prohibited from impeding normal breathing or blood circulation by applying pressure to the throat, neck or chest with the use of their knee or other object and while the individual is handcuffed,” it says.
The advisory board asked for no choke holds in any situation.
The board’s No. 1 demand was about duty to intervene, which was addressed in the document with new language in the department’s policy.
“Officers are required to take an active approach to intervene to stop an unethical behavior or misconduct when such conduct is being committed by another individual involved,” the document says. “Any officer present and observing another officer using force that he/she reasonably believes to be clearly beyond that which is objectively reasonable under the circumstances shall intercede to prevent the use of unreasonable force, if and when the officer has a realistic opportunity to prevent the level of unreasonable force being applied.”
The department is also adding to its policy about requiring medical aid after force has been used. The policy will say that “emergency medical attention will be immediately rendered, as soon as it is safe to administer aid, following any police action which results in deadly force or non-deadly use of force.”
There were some demands police rebuffed: firing a warning shot before shooting at someone, subpoena power for the department’s Citizen Review Board, banning all no-knock warrants and revoking qualified immunity for police officers.
Addressing those concerns, the document says: firing a warning shot would be dangerous, the review board is able to “perform effective oversight” without subpoena power, no-knock warrants have long been banned except in violent crime situations like a hostage, and the department agrees with the Major Cities Chiefs Association’s stance on qualified immunity.
Ramsay is a member of the MCCA, which stated: “Qualified immunity protections are extended to a wide range of government employees, not just law enforcement. Qualified immunity does not prevent officers who engage in misconduct from being convicted for criminal offenses.”
Mayor Brandon Whipple said the Wichita City Council did not agree with all demands but wanted to continue conversations about those concerns. Council member Brandon Johnson said he’s been happy with Ramsay’s response and the response of the city manager and city council.
“One of the main things we wanted to make sure of was we not only condemn the murder of George Floyd but we respond in action and that’s what this council did,” Johnson said. “... We’re definitely not finished. This is just one first step.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 4:58 PM.