Leadership needed, but Frye and Whipple appear clueless in Wichita police scandal

Wichita City Council member Bryan Frye stepped way out of line Tuesday when he accused two deputy police chiefs of extortion for signing onto a demand letter that alleges corruption in high places in the city’s handling of police misconduct.

A day after the document was filed with the city, Frye gave his hot take at a council meeting, attacking the whistleblowers beginning with a dictionary definition of “extortion” — “the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats..

“It’s mind-blowing that two current deputy chiefs of the Wichita Police Department have resorted to these tactics. Deputy Chiefs (Jose) Salcido and (Chet) Pinkston should resign immediately,” Frye continued.

Mayor Brandon Whipple admonished Frye: “I’ll remind members that we have a firewall up in our ordinance and we are not to influence the hiring, firing or disciplinary actions of employees. We have to go through the manager for that.”

Somehow, they’re on opposite sides, but they’re both wrong.

The ongoing scandal is a test of leadership for the mayor, and the man who would be mayor. So far, they’re not passing.

Their short exchange represents an attitude that has prevailed at City Hall for far too long: There is no problem too big to sweep under the rug.

This time, though, they don’t make a rug that big.

The demand letter filed Monday by Salcido, Pinkston and retired Deputy Chief Wanda Givens raises huge questions about the running of the department. And it alleges that Human Resources Director Chris Bezruki, with the support of City Manager Robert Layton, has intercepted efforts to deal with problem officers after accepting meals and gifts from the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police.

The deputy chiefs are also alleging that city administration retaliated against them personally. And Givens says she chose to retire rather than continue to work in an atmosphere of sexual harassment, after Bezruki reversed a police decision to demote a sergeant who “slapped the ass” of a female employee who was in restraints during a training session.

For years, a small but ugly subculture of excessive force, racism, sexism and anti-LGBTQ bigotry has been allowed to fester and indeed flourish, out of the public eye, in the isolated petri dish that has been Wichita Police Department.

Officers on the SWAT team — the most heavily armed unit this side of the military — exchanged sick and borderline sociopathic text messages and memes celebrating killing suspects, mocking Black, Hispanic and LGBT persons, and expressing support for the Three Percenters, a militia movement that advocates the armed overthrow of the U.S. government.

The default “punishment” was non-disciplinary “counseling and mentoring” until The Eagle obtained the messages and made them public. Only then were there any significant consequences.

Waiting for the media to have to expose your problems is no way to run a city.

The demand letter is not, contrary to Frye’s dictionary, anything like extortion.

In this country, people have the inalienable right to seek redress through the courts if they believe they’ve been wronged by their employer. A demand letter is the first step and required by state law before suing a public agency.

At this point, the allegations are still just accusations and Layton says they’re invalid and outrageous. An outside review will soon be underway by a credible contractor.

But it is far from confidence-inspiring to see Frye rush to judgment and advocate for punishing the whistleblowers before all the facts are in.

And Whipple’s not helping either, when he urges council colleagues to remain silent and punt it to Layton.

The allegations name the city manager as a defendant and it’s a clear conflict of interest for him to be involved in investigating them.

Whipple is mayor and Frye is laying the groundwork to run against him for the job next year.

So for both of them, the time has come to lead, follow or get out of the way. And getting out of the way isn’t an option.

Neither is showboating and sniping.

The court can and probably will end up dealing with the purely legal questions of whether there was retaliation against the deputy chiefs and decide whether to award them damages.

But it’s up to elected officials to clean up the Police Department. That’s not the courts’ job.

Handling tough problems is what we elect mayors and City Council members to do.

It’s high time for them to get about doing it.