The Wichita Police Department says it will not launch an investigation into the interactions between Mayor Whipple and an officer during a neighborhood cleanup event from September 24th.
Whipple has alleged officer misconduct from the event when he was stopped while trying to drop off trash. He’s also accused the officer involved of violating bodycam policy. The WPD has said the officer followed policy.
The Fraternal Order of Police has since responded, claiming video released by Whipple was cut and did not show everything that happened.
Full statements from the FOP and Mayor Whipple can be read below.
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5, Wichita, KS
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.
Mayor Brandon Whipple
