WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The names of Wichita police officers accused of misconduct will remain secret under a new contract approved by the Wichita City Council.
The council approved the contract Tuesday after hearing from community activists who said continuing the decadeslong practice of concealing names of officers disciplined for serious misconduct or use of excessive force undermines trust in the department.
“Hiding this information from the citizens of Wichita only deepens the distrust and suspicions that the cover-up of these actions is more important than being honest,” said LaWanda Deshazer, a Kansas NAACP youth adviser.
Union and city officials said officers should not be treated differently than other city employees, whose personnel records are not open to the public.
Hans Asmussen, a Wichita police detective and representative of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the contract does not protect bad cops.
“Because if the department was covering up for bad cops, then why would the FOP really need to exist as a representative for disciplinary actions,?” he said.
Before the council voted, Walt Chappell, a member of the city’s Racial Profiling Advisory Board who has advocated for decades for more transparency from the police department, asked the council to amend the contract to release information on accusations of excessive force and other serious misconduct.
“We’d like to know, if you beat somebody up, who was it that did the beating? What was their excuse for claiming they had a right to beat this person to a pulp?” Chappell said. “They get to hide behind a blue wall of silence.”
The contract also committed an additional $9 million over three years that, along with money from the American Rescue Plan Act, will help fund pay raises and a $1,000 retention bonus for commissioned officers.
State law allows the city to release disciplinary records of officers but does not require them to do so, leaving the decision up to the police chief and city manager, who must uphold the police union contract.
Police Chief Gordon Ramsay has said he opposes releasing the names of officers involved in use of force incidents unless they are charged with a crime.
Only one officer’s name has been released after a use of force complaint in the last several decades. In 2020, only four of 265 citizen complaints lodged against officers were sustained.
City Manager Robert Layton, who also opposes publicly releasing the names of officers who are disciplined, wants the names given under seal to the Citizen’s Review Board. The board cannot take any binding action, is not allowed to publicly discuss the cases they review and can review only cases that have been closed by law enforcement.