Police union defends officer’s actions in confrontation with Wichita mayor

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Update Monday, Oct. 17: Following the response from the local police union, the National Fraternal Order of Police weighed in on the situation surrounding Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple and a confrontation with a Wichita police officer. The response from the national group included an accusation of Whipple taking a “rules for thee, not for me” approach.

National Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Joe Gamaldi also responded, calling for Whipple to apologize.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Thursday afternoon released its response to body camera footage that captures a verbal confrontation between Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple and a Wichita police officer. The incident happened during a Sept. 24 Wichita neighborhood cleanup at which a Wichita city leader and some Wichita Police Department members told 12 News Whipple attempted to “cut in line,” driving around other people who were waiting to dump trash.

Whipple, in line to dump trash from a rental property, said he misunderstood the situation and felt the officer mistreated him. The exchange included the mayor calling City Manager Robert Layton. In its response, the FOP defended how the officer handled the situation. The union also took issue with Whipple’s failure to include footage of a witness who sided with the officer.

FOP’s full statement:

“We have seen the video of the Wichita Police Officer and Mayor Whipple from the neighborhood clean-up that occurred on September 24th. We are disappointed at how Mayor Whipple conducted himself during the incident and how he responded after the incident by publicly attacking the Officer. We are also concerned that Mayor Whipple released his own copy of the incident and did not include the video of the witness.

Here is what occurred: The Officer was attempting to stop Mayor Whipple from over 30 yards away. The Officer was, loud, stern and direct in his verbal commands to Mayor Whipple and had to be due to the distance the Officer was from Mayor Whipple who was in his vehicle. The Officer initiated the contact because Mayor Whipple made an improper U-turn, going through a closed median and past a patrol vehicle blocking the entrance to the parking lot where they were doing the neighborhood clean-up. Mayor Whipple cut directly to the front of line bypassing a large group of people who were waiting in line to get into the neighborhood clean-up. Once the Officer realized Mayor Whipple was not complying with verbal commands to stop and turn around the Officer walks to the rear of the vehicle to copy down the tag and then approaches Mayor Whipple and activates his body camera.

At the beginning of the video you can see the Officer is motioning for Mayor Whipple to turn around. The body camera was immediately turned on when the Officer approached Mayor Whipple. As you can hear and see in the video Mayor Whipple is immediately calling the City manager. The neighborhood clean-up was only for residents who live in the Southwest Neighborhood Association. Businesses and residents who live in the surrounding neighborhood were not allowed to dump trash. Mayor Whipple does not reside in the Southwest Neighborhood Association. We find it offensive that Mayor Whipple would attempt to deflect attention from his own inappropriate conduct by personally attacking the Officer with these false and over exaggerated accusations.”

Respectfully,

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5, Wichita, KS

The Wichita Police Department also issued a statement saying in part, the officer acted in accordance with WPD Policy and Regulations.”

WPD full statement:

“The Wichita Police Department (WPD) is aware of an incident that occurred on September 24th, 2022, in the 3800 block of S. Meridian, involving Mayor Brandon Whipple and one of our officers.

Executive staff have reviewed the Axon Body Camera footage and agree with former Chief (Lemuel) Moore’s assessment that the officer acted in accordance with WPD Policy and Regulations.

At this time, there will be no internal investigation regarding our officer’s actions.”