A new risk-assessment tool may help Sedgwick County judges better determine whether an offender is likely to succeed at a community correction facility or should be sentenced to prison. But another key to reducing Sedgwick County’s probation-failure rate, which is significantly higher than the state average, is to make sure community correction programs are adequately funded. Pound-foolish budget cuts have reduced by half the number of beds at the county’s adult residential center, which means more higher-risk offenders are living in the community with less structure and supervision. That’s a recipe for recidivism. Gov. Sam Brownback recently signed a bill aimed at reducing the need for prison beds, which is projected to save the state $53million in the next five years. About $5million of those savings are supposed to be reinvested in community-based programs. Those programs need better support. As Mark Masterson, director of the county’s department of corrections, acknowledged: “To say that services have not been compromised – the truth is they have.”
The account of the three mission women being recued yesterday in Cleveland is incredible. Amanda Berry (right in photo), who was kidnapped 10 years ago, was able to scream for help, and a neighbor kicked in the door of the house where the women had been held captive. She then called 911, telling the dispatcher: “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.” Police found the two other women in the house. The owner of that house and his two brothers have been arrested.
Law enforcement authorities in Wichita can take pride in having helped pass the state’s new anti-human trafficking law, which Gov. Sam Brownback signed Monday. Because of local officials’ good work investigating and prosecuting such cases in recent years, traffickers now will face tougher justice statewide, as vulnerable victims and survivors are handled with more care and compassion. “Kansas has made great strides forward in the fight against modern-day slavery with this new law,” said Brownback, who was a leader in the global fight during his time in the U.S. Senate. As the bill passed the Legislature unanimously, though, one concern got too little attention: its resulting costs to local governments. In February, Sedgwick County commissioners were told by county staff that such legislation would cost the county about $255,000 more a year.
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Good for the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback for taking steps to bring more rapists and child molesters to justice with House Bill 2252, which eliminates the statute of limitations on rape and aggravated sodomy and makes it easier for adults to report sex crimes that occurred when they were children. As Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt noted, successful prosecutions still will need good evidence. But because of technology and the new state law, time will no longer be on the side of a sex offender intent on escaping justice.
If there is anything that people of all political persuasions can agree on regarding guns, it may be that existing gun laws should be better enforced and felons with firearms should be prosecuted. So it’s impressive that only Puerto Rico and the Western District of Texas had more federal gun prosecutions in the fiscal year ending September 2012 than Kansas, where the office of U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom (in photo) filed gun-related charges against 447 people. Kansas also led the nation in such prosecutions in fiscal 2011. Grissom said he has told local agencies: “If they are felons and you can pull them over and they are armed, give them to us and we will cut them out of your community. You can have a huge impact on the crime rate.”
There were surges of gun purchases and concealed-carry permit applications in Kansas after the shootings at Newtown, Conn. In the 10 business days between Dec. 14 and the end of the year, 1,012 Kansans applied for gun permits, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. That 100-per-day average was about 50 percent higher than the 64-per-day application average since July. The number of background checks in Kansas also reached an all-time high of more than 35,000 in December. Nationally, background checks in December totaled nearly 2.8 million, compared with 1.6 million in October. Some of the surge may be Christmas buying, but gun dealers said that many buyers were concerned about new gun regulations.
At Wednesday’s Sedgwick County Commission meeting, County Manager William Buchanan summarized the many measures the county has taken to better manage the jail population and avoid another expansion of the facility, including what he rightly called the “amazing statistic” that 92 percent of those who graduated from drug court committed no new crimes in the six months afterward. The average daily jail population was 1,374 in November, down from 1,496 in November 2011 and 1,700 a few years ago. Buchanan had a valuable caution for the future, though. “We’re very concerned about the reduction in the state funds for the prevention programs,” he said, noting the county has seen those funds cut from more than $1 million a year to $200,000 last year. The state is “not paying attention to the front end of the system, and that’s going to catch up to us,” Buchanan said.
“Compare the rate of murder by gun in the United States to the rate in any other advanced industrial nation, and you’re forced to draw one of two conclusions: Either there are far more homicidal people in this country than just about anyplace else on Earth, or far more guns,” columnist Harold Meyerson wrote. “We must either be home to more people who succumb to murderous rage or who kill out of the coldest of calculations, or it’s easier to pick up a gun and start shooting here than in any comparable country.” Meyerson noted that there are 3.2 gun homicides per 100,000 residents in the United States, while only 0.1 per 100,000 in France, Britain and Australia. “Want to argue that we have 32 times the rate of dangerous mental illness that they have in Australia?”
Despite the impression given by the media, mass shootings are not more common now than they have been in past decades, John Fund wrote in National Review Online. “Incidents of mass murder in the U.S. declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of this century,” Fund noted. “The chances of being killed in a mass shooting are about what they are for being struck by lightning.” Of course, the rarity of the killings is of no comfort to families in Newtown, Conn.
The National Rifle Association has argued that banning assault weapons is ineffective in curbing crime. However, Australia’s ban has significantly reduced murders and mass killings. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote: “In Australia in 1996, a mass killing of 35 people galvanized the nation’s conservative prime minister to ban certain rapid-fire long guns. The ‘national firearms agreement,’ as it was known, led to the buyback of 650,000 guns and to tighter rules for licensing and safe storage of those remaining in public hands.… In the 18 years before the law, Australia suffered 13 mass shootings – but not one in the 14 years after the law took full effect. The murder rate with firearms has dropped by more than 40 percent, according to data compiled by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and the suicide rate with firearms has dropped by more than half.”
After all the measures by the Wichita Police Department and City Hall to address the shootings and other trouble in Old Town, including recent ordinance changes, it was discouraging to see things reach the point that police used tear gas to disperse a crowd. In another incident, a confrontation between a nightclub patron and a bouncer ended with the patron’s hospitalization for a broken nose and multiple lacerations. Four new surveillance cameras, paid for by business owners, should help police efforts in the nightlife district. But it’s important to note that Old Town’s problems continue to involve mostly the 200 block of North Mosley and the early morning hours when bars close – meaning the public safety problem, though serious, is also isolated.
Last week offered two needed reminders that teachers who have sex with students don’t just exercise poor judgment, cross an ethical line and violate a public trust. They also break the law and risk jail time. The Kansas Court of Appeals upheld a state law that prohibits sexual contact between a teacher and an older teen student, noting “the disparity of power inherent in the teacher/student relationship” as it affirmed the conviction of former Wichita Northwest High School choir teacher Charles Edwards for having had sex with a then-18-year-old student. Also on Friday, Kurt M. Brundage, 33, got 32 months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child while he was an English teacher at Wichita East High School. His victim, who was a 15-year-old former East student at the time, said at Brundage’s sentencing hearing that she wished people wouldn’t use the word “relationship” when describing what happened in her case. That’s an excellent point. There are much better words for it, starting with “sex crime.”
The absence of gunfire in Old Town has been a welcome change after four straight weekends of reports of shots fired. Police are treating the trouble with the seriousness it deserves and stepping up their presence in the nightlife district. Their attention is especially focused on the key hours of 12:30 to 2:30 a.m. on weekends, around the time the bars close, and in one block of North Mosley. Police, city officials and business owners will hold another meeting Friday to work toward a long-term plan for Old Town security. Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz told The Eagle editorial board Thursday that changes in how police enforce the curfew, address loitering and handle traffic may be part of the strategy, along with some “tweaking” of ordinances. But he also stressed that “statistically, nothing has changed over the last two or three years in Old Town – it’s a safe area” – but that “we have some very specific times and geography to talk about.” A poll by SurveyUSA, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, showed why it’s important to be aggressive about the issue: 82 percent of those polled Tuesday said they’d heard of the string of shootings, and 62 percent said they’d be less likely to visit Old Town because of them. According to KAKE, Channel 10, the shootings also have inspired a tasteless T-shirt.
Not surprisingly, the Colorado movie theater shooting has renewed debate about whether the public should be able to buy assault weapons. Mitt Romney is opposed to new gun laws, though he signed an assault weapons ban when he was governor of Massachusetts, describing such guns as “instruments of destruction.” He also wrongly said that the Colorado suspect possessed the guns illegally. The White House said that President Obama would not pursue new gun laws, though Obama called Wednesday for stepped-up background checks and restrictions to keep mentally ill people from buying weapons.
Details are still unfolding about the horrible shooting during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado. According to federal law enforcement officials, the suspected gunman is 24-year-old James Holmes, a former medical student. Twelve people died and an estimated 50 others were injured.
Gov. Sam Brownback recently signed legislation aimed at stemming growth in the prison population and reducing recidivism. The promising reform follows a “justice reinvestment” approach that brings together the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government to analyze data and “identify ways the state can reduce corrections spending and use some of the savings generated to invest in strategies that increase public safety,” according to a news release from the Kansas Department of Corrections. Kansas had been a national leader in recent years with “smart on crime” initiatives, but budget cuts have hampered those efforts. It’s good that the state is again recognizing that there can be smarter ways to deal with crime than just locking people up and throwing away the key.
Get ready for a Wichita Police Department without Lt. Ken Landwehr, who starts retirement this week after 35 years on the force. Landwehr, the homicide unit commander for an unheard-of 20 years, is best known for his terse public statements about the city’s worst crimes. But what really mattered to the community’s public safety were his skills as an investigator and leader of detectives. It was once as hard to imagine him retiring as it was to imagine BTK being caught. Having commanded the task force that took the serial killer off the streets in 2005, Landwehr has more than earned some rest and relaxation, as well as Wichita’s gratitude.
Human trafficking cases have more than tripled in four years, with 28 cases last year, according to Wichita police statistics. That’s shocking and intolerable. The Legislature needs to heed prosecutors and victims’ advocates who appealed last week for tougher laws. Sedgwick County Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett urged lawmakers to increase penalties on those who buy sex. Currently, men who pay 16- and 17-year-old girls for sex face only a Class C misdemeanor, which carries the same type of penalties as driving with a suspended license. As Bennett argued, “We need to do more to attack the guys who are the purchasers.”
It’s sad that Wichita began the new year with two homicides early Sunday morning. But it is especially sad that, according to police, one of the victims was a Good Samaritan. Police said that Bradley J. Wellbrock saw a man and woman arguing and asked the man to ease off, before more than half a dozen of the man’s friends showed up and Wellbrock ended up being stabbed. What a waste.
The idea of Wichita as a hotbed of sex trafficking may seem unfathomable. But the fact that cases have tripled in recent years — from nine in 2008 to 22 in 2010 to 28 already in 2011 — speaks for itself. And it doesn’t speak well of Wichita. More staffing next year at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit surely will help, but this trend poses a serious challenge for the community. It’s another reason parents need to be attentive to what’s going on in their kids’ lives, especially online. But its roots are complicated, because many of the girls caught up in this trend start as runaways from abusive homes. Wichita’s problem deserves attention from Gov. Sam Brownback, who had such a distinguished record in the U.S. Senate of fighting global human trafficking.
The addition of a single word to the FBI’s online “wanted” poster for Osama bin Laden speaks volumes: “deceased.” But that leaves nine more of the “Ten Most Wanted,” whose alleged offenses range from organized crime to murder to armed robbery to securities fraud to drug trafficking: Eduardo Ravelo, Robert William Fisher, Alexis Flores, Semion Mogilevich, Jason Derek Brown, Glen Stewart Godwin, Joe Luis Saenz, James J. Bulger and Victor Manuel Gerena.
Getting body video cameras for Wichita police officers could be a win-win for the police and the community. Cameras could help defend police against false claims of abuse or racial profiling. They also could help protect community members from possible police misconduct, because the officers would know they are being videotaped. The cameras also could provide more accurate evidence for court cases. And a GPS locator in the system that the Wichita Police Department is testing would allow dispatchers to know exactly where officers are. The challenge will be affording the cameras, which cost $5,000 each and have an additional $1,200 data storage charge after the first year.
When the economy is bad, crime tends to increase. That makes Wichita’s 5 percent overall drop in crime last year even more impressive. Major crimes fell even more, 7 percent, and the city had a nearly 30 percent decline in gang-related shootings. Police credit the community and the more than 100 neighborhood meetings they held last year that helped improve communication and trust. But Wichita police deserve praise for their skill and dedication in keeping Wichita safe.
It took 33 years and lots of international legal wrangling, but the end of the child-rape case against Roman Polanski proved again that laws need not apply to the rich and powerful. “What the Swiss have decided is that despite admitting his crimes and fleeing from U.S. justice, Polanski will never have to be punished,” wrote Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson. “It’s relevant that Polanski has never shown remorse. He claimed in a 1979 interview that he was being hounded because ‘everyone wants to (have sex with) young girls.’ It’s irrelevant that the victim, now a middle-aged woman, has no interest in pursuing the case and reliving a traumatic episode. What matters is what Polanski admitted doing to her 33 years ago — and the fact that Polanski decided to run away rather than face the music.”
But Robinson’s colleague Richard Cohen thinks the Swiss got it right in refusing to extradite the film director. “The only argument in favor of Polanski’s continued freedom is that he is the victim of judicial misconduct,” Cohen wrote. “He had good reason to believe that the trial judge in his case was going to break the plea agreement and throw the book at him. . . . He ran from the prospect of a judge who was going to make his reputation at Polanski’s expense and send him to jail for a very long time. I would have done the same.”
Welcome to Bobby Stout Appreciation Week in Wichita, a well-deserved occasion marked at Tuesday’s City Council meeting by a slide show set to the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood’s blues-rock classic “Captain Bobby Stout.” Stout’s retirement after 30 years as executive director of the Wichita Crime Commission and 23 years with the Wichita Police Department ends an era. Both the commission and its Crime Stoppers program will continue, under new director Gordon Bassham. But Stout’s leadership and watchful eye over law enforcement and public safety in Wichita will be missed.
