Deputy police chiefs allege pattern of corruption in Wichita City Hall, police union

Thanks to three current and former deputy chiefs of the Wichita Police Department, the public may soon be getting some answers about what is going on behind the blue wall of secrecy that surrounds serious incidents of police misconduct.

The three police executives, deputy chiefs Jose Salcido and Chet Pinkston and retired Deputy Chief Wanda Givens, on Monday presented the department with a demand letter alleging a pattern of misconduct, collusion and cover-up involving City Manager Robert Layton, city Human Resources Director Chris Bezruki and the Fraternal Order of Police.

The letter alleges that Bezruki in particular had a cozy relationship with the union, receiving gifts and expensive meals in exchange for favorable treatment of the union in contract negotiations and when union members were brought up on disciplinary complaints.

The letter, a precursor to suing a public agency that’s required by state law, alleges that “there remain small pockets of corruption, sexism, homophobia, racism, and violence operating within the Wichita Police Department and City of Wichita,” and that “City Manager Bob Layton, Human Resources Director Chris Bezruki, the Fraternal Order of Police and others resisted, or outright defied, actions by the executive staff (of the Police Department) to address these issues.’

The demand letter also claims a pattern of retaliation against the three deputy chiefs.

“Layton, Bezruki, the Fraternal Order of Police and others made a collaborative attempt to drive out and remove the entire executive staff of the Wichita Police Department in order to install new handpicked replacements who would be more pliable, and willing to look the other way.”

Among the handpicked replacements, the demand letter alleges, is former Deputy Chief Troy Livingston, recently rehired to succeed the retiring Lem Moore as interim chief while a search continues for a permanent chief. “Livingston’s previous employment with WPD ended when it was suggested he retire because of poor performance and he eventually had his access card revoked as he was physically escorted out of the building,” the letter said.

The city government has long danced around allegations of misconduct on the force:

▪ There was the text-messaging scandal where members of the city-county SWAT team exchanged racist, sexist and homophobic messages and texts. The whole thing was largely kissed off by the city until it came to light in this newspaper. According to the demand letter, Bezruki interfered with efforts to discipline the officers, saying it would infringe on their free-speech rights.

▪ There was the swatting case, where Officer Justin Rapp was promoted to detective after killing Andrew Finch, an innocent man, while responding to a fake emergency. Only later did a “skip letter” come to light that showed Rapp had been previously denied promotion because he said he’d tell the family to “get over it” if he encountered them while working private security at the Walmart near their home.

▪ There was a case where Sgt. Maurice Mitchell “slapped the ass” of a female officer who was in restraints during a training session. Bezruki overturned a ruling by then-Police Chief Gordon Ramsay to demote Mitchell from management.

There are other cases cited in the demand letter, but you get the picture.

According to the letter, Salcido and Pinkston had their raises delayed six months after clashes with Bezruki. And Givens says she retired “rather than continue subjecting herself to continued discrimination and a hostile work environment” over the ass-slapping incident.

All three have demanded $700,000-$765,000 in damages.

Layton defended Bezruki and his role in police disciplinary cases as part of the necessary checks and balances of running the city. And he said there’s nothing to indicate Bezruki has been on the take.

“I’ve heard the allegations,” Layton said. “They’ve been reviewed. We’ve never found any evidence of that.”

He called the comments about Livingston “an unfair attack on Troy . . . to say that he left in disgrace doesn’t fairly represent what’s in his personnel file.”

On Layton’s recommendation, the City Council has hired the security consulting firm of Jensen Hughes to assess the police culture and its relationship to other departments at City Hall. The company has a reputation for getting to the bottom of problems and for not pulling punches when it comes to making recommendations to fix them.

That’s a good start, but it’s only a start.

The problems are so ingrained that there are no one-off solutions.

Beyond the immediate fixes, we need transparency on an ongoing basis.

That includes real citizen oversight through a police review board with access to all the information necessary to determine whether the city is appropriately handling disciplinary cases and use-of-force incidents. Other cities have that, we should too.

And we need to end Wichita’s longtime practice of automatically withholding the names of officers who kill people.

Withholding those names sends a clear message that there’s no accountability for pulling the trigger at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons. It affords a level of anonymity that other citizens don’t get.

And it makes it impossible for those outside the department to look for patterns that could indicate problem officers.

We’ve had too many scandals and they’re too serious for “remain calm, all is well.”

No matter how this all turns out, the demand letter is the best thing that can be happening right now.

For too long, the public has asked for, and deserved, and not really gotten, real answers about the inner workings of City Hall, the Police Department and officials’ relationships with the union.

If this drags things into the sunshine, it could reflect poorly on our community and its institutions. But in the end, we’ll all be better off.