Shawnee City Council members upset police recruited at LGBTQ Pride event, emails show

Some Shawnee City Council members have advocated behind-the-scenes in recent months for the Shawnee Police to refrain from recruiting at LGBTQ events, claiming such events and social media posts about them create “division” in the community.

Emails obtained by The Star show Shawnee City Council members criticizing police participation at a recruiting booth at KC PrideFest in June, and advising police should “stay out of the culture war.”

To voice their concerns, city council members reached out to Nolan Sunderman, the then-city manager who resigned in November, saying they were worried about social media posts from KC PrideFest, where Shawnee Police were seen promoting their presence at a recruiting event.

Council members Kurt Knappen and Jacklynn Walters emailed Sunderman in June with their concerns, noting posts on the Shawnee Police Department social media pages that invited festival-goers to visit officers at their booth.

Knappen called the posts, which showed pictures of officers smiling in front of a booth with LGBTQ pride flags and one where they were posing with children, “a bit of a head scratcher” and “potentially divisive content.” Walters asked who allowed the posts, after saying she heard concerns from constituents and told Sunderman the city needs “to stay out of the culture war on this.”

The FBI, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and police departments from Leawood, Lenexa, Overland Park and St. Joseph also participated in the recruiting event at PrideFest, Sunderman said in response. He told Walters that Shawnee officers were compensated for their participation.

Walters asked Sunderman to have the posts removed from the city’s social media, saying the comments section showed “division” in the city.

“The activity that is taking place across the country at other Pride events is extremely vulgar,” she wrote. “I know we are not in LA, but I know some have reported similar activity was on display downtown this weekend. … I know that is not pictured, but a picture endorses the activity taking place there. The optics are bad.”

Sunderman said the city had to be careful about taking down any posts so as not to appear to censor any group.

The PrideFest posts remained on the Shawnee Facebook and Twitter pages. Some comments show the division Walters referenced in her emails.

“How sad to encourage children in this!!!” one user wrote under a post showing officers posing with kids at PrideFest.

Another user responded, “Sad to encourage children to be kind and accepting of others?? The horror! Have the day you deserve.”

The post has 69 comments in total.

Walters responded to questions from The Star through a statement via email and stuck by her claims that posts about the event should be removed.

“I am not in charge of recruitment, I am an elected official who brought a citizen concern to the city manager,” she wrote. “Hard working and well qualified individuals should be the priority, this is what our taxpayers deserve and want.

“Per my emails to the city manager, at the request of citizens I asked for the controversial post be taken down from the Shawnee Police Department’s social media outlets,” she said. “The post deals with a topic that is extremely divisive. The police department should be a source of unity in the community, not division.”

Knappen declined to comment further.

Recruiting from the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups is often considered a best practice among reform groups and pro-police organizations, said Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project. It’s always better, she said, for a police department to be more representative of the area it serves.

“Whether that’s gonna fix every problem with policing and targeting vulnerable groups is a different question,” she said, “but I think it’s definitely not a bad thing, and I think most law enforcement groups would say it’s positive to make sure there’s diversity and representation in their department.”

Chief Sam Larson said in an email statement that the Shawnee Police Department “has not drastically changed its recruiting measures due to any specific event.

Recruitment within law enforcement always presents a unique set of challenges,” he said. “The Shawnee Police Department is constantly striving to make sure our officers represent our community in the best way.”

Other police departments around the area, including Overland Park, Lenexa and Olathe, told The Star that they value diversity in their recruiting and hiring processes.

The goal, said Deputy Amber Rhoden with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, is to create relationships with the various communities law enforcement is hoping to recruit from and attend events to talk about their work. At PrideFest, Rhoden said she talked to community members about law enforcement career opportunities and the work of the office.

“For special populations within our community, not just specifically to the LGBTQ community, but all of them whether it’s the Hispanic community or people of color or whoever, we want to be involved with that group,” she said. “We can’t just run up to that group and try to recruit them if they can’t envision themselves in our agency.”

Moving forward, she said the sheriff’s office is creating a regional group centered on diversity in law enforcement that would include St. Joseph, the Kansas City metro area and departments throughout Johnson County. The departments hope to keep up a partnership to share best practices regarding recruiting, training and community engagement, she said.

Pattern of anti-LGBTQ sentiments

This isn’t the first time the council has expressed anti-LGBTQ views.

In October, council members voted 7-1 to support anti-trans sports bans at the state and federal level, an issue city governments don’t typically take stances on.

In another instance in September, Councilmember Tony Gillette told Sunderman he hoped the city would not be following through on a request to advertise in Pridely, an LGBTQIA+ lifestyle magazine.

“I hope Shawnee has NO plans to participate in this process or request!” he wrote to Sunderman.

Sunderman responded, cautioning Gillette that employees are protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at the federal level.

“We do have staff and/or their family members that identify as LGBTQ within our organization including public safety,” Sunderman wrote. “As you know, we have had members of our leadership team exit the organization because of perceived discrimination and positions the Council has taken.

“I just want to make you aware of potential discrimination claims that could arise,” he wrote.

When asked about the emails, Gillette said he “didn’t think it was right” if the city spent money recruiting through a pro-LGBTQ organization and wasn’t doing the same through churches. He said the request was regarding a “fairness issue” and making sure the city wasn’t acting outside the “normal standard operating procedures” for fair recruiting.

Gillette said he doesn’t “have to agree with that lifestyle” in order for an LGBTQ-identifying person to work for the city.

He also said the individual referenced in the emails who identified as LGBTQ and left the city “did a great job for the city of Shawnee” and met with Gillette after leaving his position. Gillette claimed the employee “left of his own volition” and that “no one pushed him” out.

The city didn’t advertise in the magazine, Shawnee communications manager Julie Breithaupt said in an email, but the communications team didn’t discuss the matter with Gillette. Shawnee, she said, strictly follows state and federal equal opportunity laws.

“Any council members’ personal views have not impacted our hiring practices,” Breithaupt said. “Our Human Resources Department has thorough hiring practices. We always comply with federal and state equal opportunity laws.”