Wichita to spend nearly $10 million to increase police pay, boost recruitment: Details

Wichita Police Department officers are set to be among the best paid law enforcement officers in Kansas.

The Wichita City Council approved nearly $10 million in unplanned pay hikes and bonuses over the next two years while increasing investment in a rewards program that police consulting firm Jensen Hughes said should be ended.

In exchange, the Fraternal Order of Police has agreed to implement one Jensen Hughes recommendation, no longer requiring the city to let officers review an entire internal-investigation file before answering questions about their conduct.

That change will remain in effect until the end of next year, when a new FOP contract is expected to be ratified by the City Council.

The council last month delayed a vote on a $5,000 retention bonus for all commissioned officers, with a majority of the council siding with Mayor Brandon Whipple. The mayor said he would not vote for the bonuses unless they were presented alongside policy changes recommended by Jensen Hughes that aim to improve police culture.

The new amendment to the FOP contract includes the $5,000 bonuses, which will cost the city at least $3.4 million. The bonuses are slated to go to eligible employees by Friday, Dec. 8, on top of a $1,000 retention bonus already scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023. Employees do not have to stay with the department beyond this week to receive the bonuses.

Under the FOP contract approved in 2021, police officers were scheduled to receive a 1.5% raise in 2024. The new proposal will give them 13.27% raises effective Dec. 23. That will raise wages for police recruits by about $3 an hour, to more than $25 an hour. Some sergeants will receive raises of nearly $5 an hour, bringing their hourly wage to $42.51 an hour.

The new proposal disregards a separate recommendation by Jensen Hughes that called for an end to “conduct bonus pay” that pays officers an extra $2 an hour if they don’t violation city policies. It will increase how much officers get paid for expected behavior to $2.25 an hour in 2024.

The city says it needs to make the proposed changes “to increase the recruitment of new officers, encourage the retention of current employees, and to implement other recommended changes to WPD,” according to the council agenda report.

Officers will also receive big increases in overtime pay if they get called to an emergency or get scheduled to pick up an extra shift. Instead of 1.5 times pay, the standard overtime rate, they will be paid 2.5 times their standard rate of pay — called “premium overtime” in the city’s agenda report. The lowest paid officers will make more than $63 an hour for any premium overtime in 2024.

The FOP amendment will also increase the clothing allowance for officers, detectives, sergeants and crime scene investigators from $700 to $850.

Wichita Police Chief Joseph Sullivan, who led criticism of the decision to delay the bonus last month, thanked the Democrat-majority City Council for unanimously approving the much larger financial incentive package for police.

“I guarantee you other departments will be scrambling when this occurs,” Sullivan said.

“When I put together the new recruitment unit, I gave them some time to study the problem: Why were we losing quality applicants to other cities?” Sullivan said. “And one of the things they definitely identified was the starting pay. So by the time an officer graduates from the police academy, they’re going to be right around $29 an hour. And that definitely puts us at or near the top of other police departments in the state of Kansas.”

The City Council has authorized hiring 708 commissioned officers, an increase of 58 since 2019. But the Wichita Police Department has struggled to meet that goal. As of last month, the department had 106 unfilled positions. That number is expected to go down in January when a new class of 23 recruits graduate from the academy, three previous employees are rehired and nine recruits join who were part of an “early onboard process” for the January 2024 class.

The FOP says the department has more than 130 commissioned officers who can retire at any time. It’s unclear how that compares to previous years.

Adopting one Jensen Hughes recommendation

In return for the bonuses and raises, the FOP agrees to a change in how the Wichita Police Department conducts internal investigations into police officers.

The existing FOP contract requires the professional standard bureau to provide the entire investigative file — including all witness statements and evidence — to the officer under investigation and the police union. Jensen Hughes, a national police consulting firm hired by the City Council in the aftermath of a racist text messaging scandal, said the existing policy “serves no good investigatory purpose” and could “taint the testimony given by the employee during the administrative interview.”

“It would allow the subject under investigation to construct a story that may discredit or nullify any of the evidence,” the Jensen Hughes study said. “The disciplinary process should be designed to gather facts, determine what took place and decide whether the employee engaged in misconduct. Allowing the employees to view the PSB case file before the interview is counterproductive to that process.”

Under the amendment, the police department will no longer be required to provide the entire investigative file to officers under investigation for wrongdoing before they are interviewed by the Professional Standards Bureau. Instead, they will receive a copy of the complaint filed against them along with any reports or video evidence recorded by the officer under investigation and any other law enforcement records available under the Kansas Open Records Act.

Officers and the FOP could later access the entire investigative file if they file a grievance to challenge any discipline handed out as a result of an investigation.

Other suggested police improvements

The consultants provided 54 action steps Wichita could take to improve its police department. It included an entire section on changes to the FOP contract, which includes “provisions in the contract that seemingly allow employees to either avoid responsibility for misconduct or, at a minimum, reduce the corrective impact imposed disciplinary sanctions may have on them”. Among those steps:

▪ Stop giving officers $2-an-hour “conduct bonuses” for not violating city policies

▪ Change policies that allow officers to trade vacation time and conduct pay to avoid suspensions

▪ Define misconduct that triggers removal from specialty teams

▪ Eliminate the “statutes of limitations” on filing low-level misconduct complaints

▪ Create and approve a code of conduct for the Wichita Police Department

The only change under consideration Tuesday was the change to internal investigations.

One of Whipple’s top initiatives

City of Wichita negotiators and the Fraternal Order of Police had drafted Tuesday’s proposal in the aftermath of a controversial decision to delay a vote on a smaller proposal last month led by Whipple, who repeatedly clashed with the FOP during the final two years of his term and during his unsuccessful reelection bid.

The Jensen Hughes study has been one of Whipple’s top initiatives as mayor. But he’ll leave office with most of the Jensen Hughes recommendations for the FOP contract in the hands of his predecessor, Mayor-elect Lily Wu.

On Tuesday, Whipple voted for the larger proposal and thanked the FOP for the opportunity to increase police funding.

“I do want to thank the FOP for being willing to renegotiate this contract,” Whipple said. “One of the goals with this is not just to increase the number of officers but also the quality of officers — being able to give our police chief the benefit of having a pool to select from by being more competitive when it comes to the financial benefits of serving our community.”

Dave Inkelaar, a Wichita officer and president of the FOP, applauded the council for approving the changes.

“Amending the 2024 contract and the $5,000 bonus have played a significant role in retaining officers,” he said. “We believe that we’re on the right path and addressing the hiring and retention challenges, collaborating tirelessly with the city and addressing concerns from the Jensen Hughes study. Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.”