Wichita police chief Gordon Ramsay has released a statement clarifying comments from a deposition he gave in May in connection with a lawsuit filed against the city.   In the deposition, Chief Ramsay said he had removed high-ranking officers and detectives from investigations into officer-involved shootings, out of concerns over fairness.  He had acknowledged that investigators asked leading questions that could have prompted officers to claim the shootings were in self-defense.

The deposition was given in a lawsuit filed by the family of 28-year-old Andrew Finch, who was killed in an officer-involved shooting resulting from a “swatting” incident in December, 2017.

Chief Ramsay issued the following statement on Friday:

As Wichita Police Chief I am and always have been confident in the men and women of the Wichita Police Department (WPD).

Since arriving in Wichita in January 2016, I have been committed to moving the WPD organization in the direction to best serve Wichita.  In doing this, I continually make personnel changes based on rank, experience, union contracts and strengths of each individual employee.  This is common practice among police departments across the nation.

A recent Associated Press article speaks about removing high-ranking officers and detectives regarding probes of police shootings.  Please remember the deposition referenced is only an excerpt of a larger deposition.  The department members involved are good officers and good employees, striving to reach the goals of the WPD.  They committed no legal or WPD internal violations.  The employees moved to different positions based on their strengths and where they could best serve the department.  The change was made to foster better community relations and to add transparency.  Taking a snippet from a deposition that lasted hours and drawing conclusions does not give full context and unnecessarily hurts the good name of our investigators. 

I remain committed to the safety of Wichita and back the WPD staff in their abilities to provide public safety services to this city.  The WPD leadership team and members will continue to follow best practices and industry standards as identified in our strategic agenda.