In the Documenter notes for the Citizen Review Board meeting, Citizen speaker Vincent Hancock pointed out that there was an error regarding Public Agenda. The notes incorrectly left his comments out from the meeting. His comments have been added to correctly represent the meeting.
Citizen Review Board Monthly Meeting
Documenter name: Carli Harmening
Agency: Wichita Citizens Review Board
Date: Aug. 22, 2024
See more about this meeting at Documenters.org
Board members in attendance:
Odell Harris Jr.
Brandy Willett
Faith Martin
Joe Kisner
Sara Mata
Tonya Howard
Gregory VanDyke Jr. - appointed by Council member Brandon Johnson but not officially sworn in yet.
The meeting began at 4:00 pm with four members of the public in attendance. Currently, there are two board seats vacant.
The first issue addressed was the conduct of board members, specifically absenteeism and vacancies on the Citizens review board.
A significant amount of time was dedicated to formalizing a process to remove board members who miss 3 consecutive meetings within a 12 month period and contacting absent board members to gauge their interest in continuing to be on the board.
Board members Joe Kisner and Faith Martin made a motion to direct staff to provide attendance data for the last 4 meetings so that Joe Kisner can contact delinquent board members to ask if they still want to remain on the board.
Public comment
Vincent Hancock referred to the website and board regulations. He mentioned how the agenda for the day said that each citizen may speak once for 3 minutes, but the by laws and policies says members of the public are limited to 5 minutes. The chair responded that this was a paperwork error. He also asked why the April, May, and June minutes were missing?
Twila J Puritty suggested there be documentation of members who are late to meetings. Twila J Puritty, a member of the District 1 Advisory Board was one of the people in attendance. She raised concerns about the disproportionate amount of people of color receiving citations from the Wichita Police Department (WPD).
James E. Barfield spoke about the WPD’s use of force policy and was present at the meeting to advocate for a citizen who alleged excessive use of force by a member of WPD. He stated that police officers are supposed to respond to incidents, and conduct an unbiased gathering of information and not be a judge. He spoke with conviction saying that the woman he was advocating for/representing did not have to be arrested.
The board took a brief recess at 5:15 to watch a video related to the complaint from the unnamed woman whom James E Batfield was advocating for. During the recess I spoke with James who said of the board “To me they don’t take it seriously” referring to absenteeism and vacancies.
When the board reconvened at 5:50, the board made a ruling to take no action about the complaint of excessive force.
Board member Faith Martin made a motion to recommend a review of WPD’s de-escalation training and escalation of force policy. She inquired if this training is annual or ongoing and it was confirmed that it is ongoing.
Board member Odell Harris Jr. who headed the meeting, thanked the few members of the public that were present for attending, and proposed that meetings should be scheduled later in the evening so that more members of the public could attend. He also suggested that the meetings be moved to a more public space such as the Advanced Learning Library downtown. He said this could increase turnout at these meetings and stated twice regarding city hall “This building is very intimidating.”
The next citizens review board meeting is scheduled for September 26 at 6pm.
The meeting was live streamed for public viewing.
Board members advocated for the citizen police academy.
Information can be found regarding how to formally make a complaint against WPD officers.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@citybureau.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.