Citizen Review Board Monthly Meeting

Documenter name: Ricky Jacques

Agency: Wichita Citizens Review Board

Date: June 27, 2024

See more about this meeting at Documenters.org

The Scene

The Wichita Citizens review board meeting was held Thursday July 27th 2024 on the first floor of City Hall in the board meeting room slightly after 4:00 pm. Once entering the room there was a small table with the meeting agenda, the minutes from the meeting in May, record of previous recommendations/motions, data of complaints made against the Wichita Police Department (WPD), a breakdown of the allegations, and a flyer for the Wichita- Sedgwick County Citizen police department. There were 20 people total in attendance with 9 of the 13 board members being present (2 seats are currently vacant).

The chairperson Odell Harris Jr called the meeting to order and started the meeting. Members don’t do a roll call, they sign in.

Public Agenda - 15 mins are allowed for this portion of the meeting for public comment. There were only 3 speakers (Dr. Walt Chappell, Twila Puritty, and James) so each one of them were allowed 5 minutes each.

Twila Puritty sat at the table with the agenda and the mic. She then began to speak about a proposed plan in regards to community engagement that had been postponed until 2025. She also mentioned data that had been provided through a consultant named Jensen Hughes was incomplete and was hoping that it would be accurate and updated regularly.
Dr. Walt Chappell- brought up the issue regarding the timeliness of the agenda being put out “timely.” He talked about reviewing citizens' complaints more often since there were so many outstanding. He talked about the Cedric Lofton case as well as recent incidents that occurred in Old Town and near Rock Road. Dr. Chappell also addressed the board's insufficiency in producing reports on the cases they were reviewing. He said “ they’re supposed to be produced every quarter but there’s only been one produced.”

Cedric Lofton is a young man that died when he was restrained for 30 minutes. He died on September 26, 2021.

James - Works for the Kansas Advocates for Racial Justice and Equality. He simply wanted the board to cc his organization when there is correspondence between the board and a complainant he may be working with. He does not give legal advice and they’re simply advocates. James and board member Faith Martin mentioned that when there is an advocate involved they are more likely to get proper and timely correspondence.

Staff Reports- Captain Jason Cooley

Captain Cooley talked to the board about the data that was attached to the agenda. Board members were frustrated because the data was so vague that they could not properly identify cases where there may have been racial profiling or mistreatment by law enforcement because of the vagueness of the data.

Executive Session

The board broke for an executive session to discuss complaint 20PSB-5105.
Public isn't allowed.
The Board decided to extend the session twice which made it go from originally ending at 5:25 to an ending of 5:50.

At the end of the meeting they decided to elect Odell Harris as Chairperson. Faith Martin as Vice- Chair and Janet Johnson as secretary.

Summary

Summarize the 3 most important outcomes or takeaways from your notes....

The board is still learning how to conduct a meeting properly.
The board is trying to balance establishing themselves as a board and the bi-laws that will conduct them.
The board wants to work through pending complaints that have piled up while trying to add a 1-2 per meeting or over a few meetings so they don’t overload themselves.

Follow-Up Questions

What are you left wondering? Ask up to 3 of your own follow-up questions...

Why wasn’t Captain Cooley more prepared for possible questions he would be asked about the data?
Why was the executive session extended 2 times and was the complainant allowed to be in there during that time?
Why are there still vacancies on the board?

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