License plate readers lead Wichita police SWAT team to parole absconder’s location

A Wichita police SWAT standoff Wednesday afternoon captured a parole absconder with the help of the city’s license plate readers.

The standoff at a home in the 1900 block of South Hillside, near Mt Vernon, ended peacefully after the man came out of the house. The suspect’s family helped negotiators talk the man out.

“We had identified an individual that was wanted on five or six felony warrants,” Patrol East Capt. Kevin Kochenderfer said. “(He is) a parole absconder and ... a person of interest in some recent cases that we had involving violence.”

The incident on Wednesday lasted several hours, but the entire investigation against the man started with separate cases that started about two weeks ago.

“We have been working some other cases that involve violence here recently where photos came up from stores and whatnot that identified this person as being involved,” he said.

“We utilized some of our technology, some of the license plate readers and stuff for associated vehicles, which led us to a vehicle that was on camera on the incident from two weeks ago,” he said. “So we linked the photo of the person to the vehicle that was from (a) Ring doorbell, and then we were able to put that license plate into the database and it told us the area that it was most frequently being alerted at, which was over here.”

Police patrolled the area and found the vehicle at a family member’s home on Hillside in south Wichita, he said.

Police saw the suspect come out of the home and get into the vehicle Tuesday evening. They tried to make a traffic stop, but the suspect took off.

“It was around 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. “Traffic was too heavy. We are not going to pursue and put people at risk so we stopped, but we recovered the vehicle which led us back to over here.”

Police watched the home and spotted the man Wednesday. The standoff ensued during the middle of the day. SWAT and police vehicles were parked on Hillside in front of the home. A woman across the street from the incident said the suspect was her brother and police were blowing things out of proportion.

Kochenderfer said the recent crimes that allegedly involve the suspect had “instances of firearms.” Around 2:50 p.m., he said that police were still trying to get a warrant to search the home for any possible firearms.

The department’s pilot project with Flock Safety license plate readers started in November with about 35 cameras. In April, before the City Council approved a contract with the company, there were 106 units deployed across Wichita with four more on the way.

This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 3:44 PM.