Evidence missing in homicides, rapes and other Wichita Police Department cases

The Wichita Police Department is missing evidence in homicides, rapes and other criminal cases, a 2021 outside audit found. But the city manager’s office was unaware of the extent of the problem until this month.

City Manager Robert Layton said in a Monday news conference that a January 2021 audit of Wichita police’s property and evidence facility was full of concerning information, but his office didn’t find out about audit’s full findings until about two weeks ago when his office was looking into problems with the department’s records management system.

The auditing firm identified missing evidence in at least 54 cases. It’s unknown if other cases have missing or damaged evidence, as the department does not have a full inventory of its evidence storage facility.

The audit by Evidence Control Systems identified potential problems with the city’s police property and evidence storage facility that “has a lack of proper controls in place to mitigate potential risks” — from missing cash and drugs to improper storage of evidence in homicide and rape cases. Former Chief Gordon Ramsay ordered the audit in 2020.

“There are already undesirable outcomes, some of which are non-recoverable,” Lt. Danny Brown, who works in technical services, wrote to Ramsay in June 2021. “Examples include the disappearance of homicide evidence, sexual assault case evidence and money, along with the degradation of homicide and other biological evidence to the point where it is non-usable in future court proceeding.”

Brown stated his concerns that evidence could be missing or stolen without the department knowing it.

“We are one of the worst-case-scenarios for this to occur, again, resulting in a criminal situation we don’t need and a huge public embarrassment,” Brown told Ramsay, noting the department holds an unknown amount of money in more than 600,000 packages of evidence.

“No one knows how much we have — no one knows where it is,” Brown wrote. “We also have thousands of packages of drugs not stored according to best practices.”

Brown raised concerns to Ramsay again in September 2021. Layton said Ramsay never shared those concerns with this office.

Layton gave out copies of the 407-page executive summary of the audit to reporters on Monday, along with emails and memos shared within the Wichita Police Department and from Ramsay to Layton.

“Trust comes from performance and also from sharing information,” Layton said. “Today, we’re trying to share information that we have. It’s not complete information.”

In response to the new information, Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple announced he is planning to create a new task force of elected officials to add oversight to the Wichita Police Department. He said the city also plans to be more open with public records amid concerns that police leaders have been withholding information.

“I am announcing that I plan to appoint a special task force of elected leaders to do a deep dive into the city issues we see coming out of the Wichita Police Department and other departments that also interact with the Wichita Police Department with the goal of bringing accountability and transparency in on all sides,” Whipple said.

“The goal again is to enhance our oversight capacities or capabilities so that we may identify problems, assess the impact of those problems on the community, enhance transparency and allocate resources quickly to address issues as they arise.

“The elected body cannot properly provide the resources our departments need, if they do not have the most accurate information.”

The additional measures announced by Whipple are intended to clean up the police department, which has been beset by a wave of allegations of misconduct, corruption and mishandling of internal investigations.

“In addition to this task force, I’ll be working with the council members to improve the Kansas Open Records Act process at the city of Wichita,” Whipple said. “We’ve seen the importance that our media and members of the public play in getting information necessary to improve City Hall.”

Whipple said he is proposing a new policy to eliminate open-records fees for “at least the first few hours spent on fulfilling” a request and other transparency measures to make it easier to get information about the city’s inner workings.

“As mayor, it’s important to me that City Hall is as transparent with the public as possible,” Whipple said. “And I want to encourage residents to seek out information, not be discouraged by the process.”

He is proposing the city disclose all records that are not specifically prohibited from being released by state statute, which would include body camera footage and other records the city typically fights to keep secret.

“The Kansas Open Records Act must be interpreted to release all information that’s not specifically barred by statute, and I plan to work with staff to make that happen here in Wichita.”

Unacceptable delay

Layton said the Police Department has not moved quickly enough to address the problems outlined in the 2021 audit.

“I believe that the police department appropriately recognized the potential problems in the property and evidence facility, as evidenced by Chief Ramsay’s request for an external audit, and the department took steps to better identify those problems,” Layton said. “However, it appears that there was an unacceptable delay in implementing the solutions to those problems that had been identified.”

Wichita police leadership learned of the audit’s findings in April 2021, when a Wichita police lieutenant submitted a memo up the chain of command to Deputy Chief Jose Salcido outlining the key findings of the audit and initial recommendations for improvements.

In May 2021, Ramsay sent Layton a memo about the audit, writing it “found significant operational weaknesses that should be addressed immediately.” Ramsay also disclosed that the auditors had “concerns regarding the handling of currency and drugs” in the facility, including that “the only way any missing cash would be identified is when a package or envelope was opened for a specific purpose” and “drugs are not stored to industry standards, as they are being stored and comingled (sic) with other evidence.”

Ramsay outlined his strategy for addressing the problems.

“The Police Department has developed a multi-phases recommendation to address Property and Evidence challenges,” Ramsay told Layton. “An initial and immediate phase would include the addition of two positions.”

Layton said the two positions were added to the budget but it appears other steps were not taken to address the problems.

Lt. Brown brought an additional budget request up the chain of command in March 2022, after Ramsay resigned to move back to Minnesota. But Brown’s request for additional support never made it to the city manager’s office.

Layton said he did not understand the severity of the situation based on Ramsay’s memo and that he trusted Ramsay had a plan to address the problems.

“I’m only as good as the people I work with, right,” Layton said. “And in that case, the chief — and I think the chief was making an honest effort to get the right staffing in place to be able to move forward — and so what he said is I need these two, these new positions.”

Layton said he does not know if any evidence problems have resulted in wrongful convictions or lack of prosecution. He said the city has notified Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett of the problems but it could take a year to do a complete inventory of the evidence storage facility.

“We won’t really know what conditions we have with evidence and any impacts on cases until we do the full inventory to determine what we have, right, and if there’s any discrepancies that exist in our records,” Layton said.