City of Wichita to restructure and relaunch its Civilian Review Board
On Monday the 15th, Bob Layton (Wichita City Manager) announced the formation of a new citizen review board that will investigate major complaints against police and report to the City Manager's Office. The city has had a review board in place for years, but it had not met in a number of years.
The new board will meet quarterly and is intended to be more aggressive than its predecessor. The Review Board will review professional standards, allegations of excessive use of force, racial profiling and policies and procedures in the Police Department.
Its members are:
- Timothy L. Sims, pastor of Progressive Missionary Baptist Church
- Brian Carduff, president and owner of Baysinger Police Supply
- David Robbins, former president of Robbins Truck Trailer Sales and a former employee of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services
- Michael Ackerman Jr., president and owner of Michael's Complete Lawn Care
- Jason Watkins, director of government relations for the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce and a former state lawmaker
- Jaya Escobar, academic director at Hope Street Youth Development
- Sheila Officer, education and training coordinator with Goodwill Industries of Kansas
- Shala Jean Perez, who teaches administration of justice courses at Butler Community College and is project director of the Governor's Task Force on Racial Profiling.
- Kevin Myles, president of the Kansas State Conference of the NAACP and president of the Wichita Branch NAACP
