Swatting case: Promoting Justin Rapp to detective is a slap in the face to Wichita

Let’s say you’re the manager of a large company.

One of your employees commits one of the biggest mistakes in company history.

A person dies because of that error.

A lawsuit is filed that could cost your company $25 million in damages, and you have to pay potentially millions more to defend your employee in court.

And then, the employee sues you for denying him permission to work at a second job while you’re still paying his salary.

You might not think that particular employee would be a strong candidate for promotion.

If you’ve been paying attention to current events, you may have recognized that the employer here is the Wichita Police Department and the employee is the former Officer Justin Rapp, now Detective Justin Rapp.

Rapp fired the fatal shot that killed an innocent man, Andrew Finch, as he stood on his front porch the night of Dec. 28, 2017. Finch died after his house was surrounded by police reacting to a bogus emergency call by a serial hoaxster who specialized in prompting Special Weapons and Tactics —SWAT — responses to imaginary events for fun and profit.

The genesis of this particular swatting was a trivial dispute over a $1.50 wager between a couple of online gamers. Finch had nothing to do with the game; his sole mistake was stepping onto his porch to find out what the commotion was outside his home, where he was surprised and confused by multiple officers shouting commands that he probably never understood.

On Tuesday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver rightly upheld a ruling by a federal judge in Wichita who found that a $25 million civil lawsuit against Rapp can go to trial.

The court found “a jury could find Rapp shot Finch even when a reasonable officer would have known Finch was unarmed and posed no threat.”

The appeals court also upheld the judge’s dismissal of the city of Wichita as a defendant in the case. But as a practical matter, it doesn’t make a lot of difference.

The city — that means you the taxpayer — is still on the hook to defend Rapp at trial and to pay any judgment or settlement that may be ordered in the case.

Rapp was exonerated of criminal wrongdoing when District Attorney Marc Bennett declined to file charges. An internal police investigation let him keep his job.

Now, a reasonable man might have felt like he dodged the proverbial bullet on this one, but not Rapp.

He sued the city, alleging $31,000 in lost income from a side job providing private security — which involved him wearing his uniform, badge and gun — because he was barred from that work during the investigation of his conduct in the swatting.

That case was rightly dismissed.

But about that promotion . . .

In a written statement justifying it, interim Police Chief Lem Moore said: “To utilize the involvement of an officer in an officer involved shooting as a disqualifier for future advance(ment) would not only be contrary to existing policy, but would also not allow otherwise qualified individuals to advance within the department.”

That statement is a classic example of answering a question that was never asked. No one is saying officers should be summarily disqualified from promotion for being involved in a shooting.

It sidesteps the real issue here: Has this particular officer exhibited the judgment and temperament to be expected of someone carrying the power of life and death in our city?

The answer to that question is “no.”

Rapp’s actions haven’t earned him a promotion. At most, he should be shuffling papers at a desk somewhere deep inside City Hall.

Rewarding him squanders credibility that is in short supply at the WPD right now, amid other disturbing revelations of racist, violent and trigger-happy texts within the SWAT team.

It is a slap in the face to every officer who does the job right, and to every person in this community who thinks some of our police need to use their guns a little less and their brains a little more.