Release date for cultural assessment of Wichita Police Department pushed back to March

Wichitans will have to wait a bit longer to read a consultant’s report investigating possible bias within the Wichita Police Department and suggesting reforms to the force.

Officials say the cultural assessment from Jensen Hughes will be released to the public in March instead of February.

“We expect a draft this week. It will then be reviewed for accuracy for things like names and titles, and we expect to share it publicly after the review,” city spokesperson Megan Lovely told The Eagle in an email Monday.

Mayor Brandon Whipple addressed the forthcoming report in his State of the City address last week, saying Wichita is “on track to create the premiere police department” in the region.

“Next month, we’ll receive a comprehensive study of our police department, conducted by one of the most respected firms in the country. This report will provide Chief Sullivan with a road map to create a more effective strategy for community-centered policing,” Whipple said.

Officials say the analysis will be published online in its entirety.

Jensen Hughes, which issued sobering reports to the cities of Louisville and Minneapolis after the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, was selected from a pool of nine candidates to audit the WPD after an Eagle investigation found little was initially done to discipline SWAT officers involved in the sending of racist and inappropriate text messages.

The Chicago-based firm hasn’t provided a progress update on the city’s website since Dec. 2, when it was reported that Jensen Hughes had completed 56 one-on-one interviews with WPD personnel and 420 of 628 department employees had responded to an email survey.

The firm, which is being paid an estimated $214,000, says it has reviewed 10GB of documents and data, including policies, reports, organizational charts, budgets, standard operating procedures and complaints against department members.

Jensen Hughes investigators visited Wichita on Jan. 9 to conduct more interviews and discuss communication between the city manager’s office, city legal and the HR department.

City Manager Robert Layton told The Eagle earlier this month that he has not exercised any influence over the investigation or analysis.

“I promised that that was going to be an independent report and they were going to draw their conclusions independently,” Layton said. “So I have not had any interaction with them other than they interviewed me like they interviewed everybody else during the process.”