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Wichita Citizens Review Board - Citizen Review Board Monthly Meeting 07/25/2024
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Citizen Review Board (CRB) Monthly Meeting

Documenter name: Nancy Davis

Agency: Wichita Citizens Review Board

Date: July 25, 2024

See more about this meeting at Documenters.org

 

The meeting was called to order by Chair, Odell Harris Jr., who indicated that because there were not enough Board members in attendance, they would not be able to approve minutes or other new business. He asked anyone with comments or corrections to the minutes to send them to him before the next meeting. They did continue with the agenda.

Public Comments

Twyla Puritty, former CRB member, said that the work of the Board seems to be moving slowly and that multiple members are absent at multiple meetings. She commented that other City boards have a policy that if a member misses three meetings, they are dismissed from the Board. She indicated that there are agenda items from the April meeting that have not been addressed, and she is concerned about the lack of progress by the Board.

Chair Odell responded by saying the CRB has not had a full complement of members for some time; that the City cyberattack slowed down processing of new members and that attendance of current members has been a problem. He promised to work harder to maintain membership and move agendas along more efficiently. There was a suggestion that members might participate remotely by phone or Zoom.

James Hodges said that he does not think the Wichita Police Department Facebook page is adequate to inform the public. He thinks there should be more transparency and community involvement.

Capt. Aaron Moses, representing the Wichita Police Department at the meeting, responded by saying the WPD Twitter account is in the top 10 most engaged for police departments in the country. He said social media is a top priority of the Chief and that they are working on a public-facing report of crime in the City, expected to launch Aug 1. Again, the cyberattack delayed this along with determining which data should be shared as well as privacy concerns. Each area Bureau has its own Facebook page with information about its community meetings and other activities. Each Bureau is involved in weekly community engagement meetings within the Department.

Wichita Police Department Report: Capt. Aaron Moses filling in for Capt. Cooley.

District 6 Town Hall meeting will be July 31, 6 p.m., Evergreen Community Center. Communications will be in English and Spanish

District 5 Advisory Board meeting will be Aug. 5, 6 p.m., at the Water Center.

District 2 meeting is to be determined.

Neighborhood Night Out will be Aug. 13

Unity in the Community was held in District 3 last week; District 6 will be Sept 14

CRB was provided with a detailed report of WPD complaints, allegations, investigations and outcomes. Board members were asked whether they would like to review any of these in more detail.

Professional Standards Bureau Reports Review

CRB member Faith Martin requested review of #24PSB-2111 concerning “Conduct unbecoming an Officer.” Capt. Moser will provide additional details on this case.

There was discussion regarding definitions of Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau findings:

Capt. Moses reminded the Board that these definitions are in the CRB brochure and that all Police Department regulations, standards and a policy manual can be found at the WPD website under the “About Us” tab.

This led to a discussion of improving CRB review processes by having these definitions available with the reports WPD provides the Board. There was no definitive outcome.

There was a question about an allegation in the report labeled “Contact with citizen.” Capt. Moses explained this is a category in their regulations.

Other Discussion

Chair Odell indicated the need to get agendas out earlier so Board members have time to review the complaint reports. Capt. Moses explained that there is a process for posting agendas through the City Clerk. They determined the information for agenda items would need to be provided by Aug. 8 for the next CRB meeting on Aug. 22.

Chair Odell emphasized that all CRB members are expected to participate in the WPD Police Academy, a 13-week program. He shared that the simulations with shooters demonstrate how officers must make split-second decisions in these situations, and it gives new perspective in reviewing these activities. CRB members are also invited to do ride-alongs with WPD and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department.

Executive Session

There was no Executive Session due to the lack of a quorum to make a motion to move to Executive Session. Additionally, the invited participant for the scheduled discussion was not present.

Old Business

Faith Martin reported on the ad hoc committee charged with reviewing the work of the CRB. She indicated the WPD reports to the CRB need more concise data. Data requests were sometimes missing or incomplete.

They reviewed:

The ad hoc committee made the following recommendations:

Opportunities identified included:

Track and Report

Requests for Data:

1. Open Complaints

2. Finalized Complaints Highlighting:

3. Legend with definitions

4. Terms Defined

5. Categories for reporting:

PSB#

Incident type

Allegation

Directive # with description

Date received

Finding

Date completed

Detailed summary of the origin and nature of the complaint or a copy of the completed complaint form.

The Board discussed and Chair Odell requested Board members to review and be prepared to discuss at the August meeting due to lack of quorum at the meeting.

Public attendee Twyla Puritty made the point that the Review Subcommittee had been disbanded and this has led to backlogs of reviews. Chair Odell agreed and is confident that once the CRB has a full complement of members, the Subcommittee can be reinstated, and he proposed a longer meeting in September or October to catch up on reviews and recommendations. Those in attendance agreed with this proposal.

Capt. Moses reported there are currently two vacancies on the CRB, according to the City Clerk.

The group agreed that the Executive Sessions should be moved to the end of the agenda in order to allow public attendees to leave rather than wait outside for Executive Sessions to end and agenda to resume.

Board Agenda for August

The members in attendance requested the following agenda items for the Aug. 22 meeting:

Chair Odell adjourned the meeting at 5:05 pm.

 

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@citybureau.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.