Absence of Wichita cops for inauguration will have little impact on local operations, police say
Wichita police say the city shouldn’t really notice the absence of dozens of commissioned officers traveling to Washington D.C. to help with Inauguration Day security.
In total, 50 officers will be gone for the four-day trip, which begins Monday. The officers will return to Wichita on Thursday.
Department spokesman Officer Kevin Wheeler said the officers who will attend were strategically chosen from a pool of volunteers with the overall effect on the city and the agency’s operations in mind.
They’re among thousands of law enforcement and military personnel from across the country, including 300 Kansas National Guardsmen, called to provide support and security during Inauguration Day events.
“We have chosen people from each rank, bureau, shift, section, and specialty unit to minimize the overall effect on WPD operations,” Wheeler said in a prepared written statement. “The operational impact of our participation in this event was thoroughly reviewed and will be minimal with our plan.”
Wichita police would not answer questions about the exact number of officers from each rank and bureau who would participate in the Inauguration Day assignment. But the total represents roughly 7% of the agency’s commissioned workforce. The department has long expressed a need to hire more officers to help meet Wichita’s public safety demands. Last year, the WPD employed nearly 900 people, about three-quarters of whom were commissioned.
The officers were scheduled to travel from Wichita to Washington on Monday, Jan. 18, and will receive training and be sworn into service on Tuesday, Wheeler said. Their work at Inauguration Day activities will last from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday. They will fly back to Wichita sometime Thursday.
Police would not discuss the officers’ itineraries, including any leisure or sightseeing plans, beyond the basic travel, training and service agenda.
All of the officer’s expenses for the trip including flights, hotel rooms, their salaries, transportation costs, per diem and overtime pay will be paid for by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, which is responsible for officer staffing at Inauguration Day events, Wheeler said.
Wichita police said the D.C. department requested staffing help from it and other law enforcement agencies nationwide prior to November’s general election.
Wheeler said helping the D.C. department meet its need for 3,200 additional officers is not only an honor and “good experience” for WPD but also “allows us to help, as someday we could be the agency requesting mutual aid.”
“Seeing the logistics and operations of this event will help us learn how other departments operate and handle large events,” Wheeler said in the statement.
“We consider it an honor for our department to have been requested to assist in the presidential inauguration. We are proud to be recognized as an agency that meets the professional standards for participating in this event.”
The officers’ trip comes in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol Building by a pro-Trump mob and an FBI warning that more armed protests could be forthcoming across the country as President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20. The Wichita Police Department has not yet said whether it’s taking any extra precautions in light of the FBI warning, including ramping up staffing as it did in response to local Black Lives Matter protests this past summer, or whether it expects any local demonstrations.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, meanwhile, announced that she planned to close the Statehouse to the public for a week over security concerns, although so far there have been no specific threats of attack targeting it.
