I have thoroughly enjoyed my
first few months in Wichita and believe it is important to keep residents
updated by providing a brief outline of my priorities. My overriding goal is to keep our community
safe. I am passionate about the role
police play in society strongly and know that police count; making a
positive difference in our communities every minute of every day. I was pleased to read a February survey found
90% of those who had contact with Wichita police staff had a fair, good or
excellent interaction. While those numbers are good, there is always room for
improvement. Here are my priorities as we move forward.
1. We have not been able to
hire enough officers to replace those that are retiring and it has left us
shorthanded. Since arriving, I have spent a lot of time on the street and
consistently see officers start and end their shift with 911 calls waiting to be
answered. Residents are waiting too long for officer response and we are not as
proactive as we could be because of our inability to hire enough people. We
need to work harder and smarter at recruiting individuals to become police
officers. We have not been able to recruit enough officers in recent years to reach
our budgeted number of staff. We have the support from City Administration,
Mayor or Council to hire more officers, but we simply can't get enough people
in the door fast enough. We are currently about 30 officers short and unless we
change our practices, we will continue to lose ground and could be 50 officers
short by the end of the year. We simply need to change our business practice
around hiring, because what we are doing is not working. Filling the empty
squad cars is a priority.
2. While our officers are
busy, I want to see our officers moving closer to the community and take every
opportunity to have positive interactions. We must be careful not to become
overly focused on enforcement and instead engage citizens proactively in crime
prevention, neighborhood watch, citizen patrols and consistently look
for opportunities to have positive contacts. Now in my 24th year of policing I
learned a long time ago we solve crime by having good relationships with those
we serve because they provide information when they know and trust their
police. Many police departments moved away from community policing and in
places such as Ferguson became overly focused on revenue generation through
tickets. While we will always have to enforce laws, it is imperative to remember
we are the servants, guardians, protectors, problem solvers and helpers in our
community - not oppressors and occupiers of our neighborhoods.
3. I want to ensure safe
neighborhoods and provide our officers with tools to be successful in their effort.
Through technology, training and new ordinances I know we can have a powerful
impact on safety because I've done it. Since arriving here, I've met with over
30 community groups and hear resident’s concerns at every meeting and have
found a common theme related to habitual problem properties. Stories relayed to me by residents involve
chronic problem properties where the term being neighborly is not part of the equation.
Blight, parties and other disturbances has neighbors upset - and they look to the
police for solutions. I have found that too often our officers are responding
over and over and lack tools to improve the situation. Most concerning is taxpayers
are subsidizing excessive police response to problem properties.
Like most everything in life
a few seem to ruin it for the majority. I have found motels fit into this
category and recognize the majority of motels are managed well, however in
Wichita a couple of clusters of motels are infested with crime and drugs; and
it seems to be occurring with management's full knowledge. Problem motels bring
down the surrounding neighborhood and are utilizing an enormous amount of
police resources. The time has come for the owners and managers of problem
motels to be accountable for the problems occurring at their property. We will
be calling on their owners and management to work with us to create safe and
drug free environments - we simply are not going to tolerate what is occurring
at these places any longer.
4. I have begun a top to bottom review of policies and practices. While this is a major undertaking and there is a lot to do, I recognize that this is an area staff and stakeholders want reviewed to ensure we are following best practices and meeting industry standards.
