Law Enforcement

Wichita City Council members took time out today to honor fallen law enforcement officers.  A ceremony was held in the City Council Chambers at City Hall at noon. Since 1871, 29 law enforcement officers in Sedgwick County have fallen in the line of duty.  Each year during the second week of May law enforcement agencies across America remember those who paid the supreme sacrifice to keep the peace in their communities.  The first law enforcement officer in Sedgwick County to fall in the line of duty was Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos B. King.  Deputy King died on September 23, 1871 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Newton, Kansas.

It's been in the works for seven years.  Now the City of Wichita, Sedgwick County and the Kansas National Guard are ready to move forward with a joint training center.  The Heartland Preparedness Center will break ground next month.  The 45 acre complex will be built on the southeast intersection of K-96 and I-135. Those involved say this training center is the first of its kind in the nation.  It will be used to train local law enforcement and also national guard members.  The Heartland Preparedness Center will replace the existing law enforcement training center at 37th and Meridian.

Kansas law enforcement officers are stepping up traffic enforcement during the Thanksgiving holiday week. Officers with the Wichita Police Department will be conducting traffic enforcement assignments Wednesday and Thursday. According to a press release, officers will be looking for and arresting impaired drivers. Officers will also pay close attention to speeders. The program is part of WPD’s 2011 Impaired Driving Deterrence Program Grant which came through the Kansas Department of Transportation.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department and the Kansas Highway Patrol conduct a DUI checkpoint in West Wichita. The checkpoint was set up in the West-bound lanes of 21st St. North, just east of Ridge Road.  It was in operation from 11:00pm Saturday to 2:30am Sunday, Our news partners at KFDI radio report 400 vehicles passed through the checkpoint this weekend, and seveal arrests were made. Officers on the scene also confiscated several open containers of alcohol.  

A telephone solicitation led to several law enforcement officers with high-powered weapons around the Journal Broadcast Group building in north Wichita. The solicitation was the beginning of an elaborate scam. On February 14 th , a telephone caller with a foreign accent called a Journal Broadcast Group employee to say he owed $400. The Journal employee refused to pay, but the calls continued. On Wednesday of this week the Journal employee told the caller to stop the harassing phone calls or he would contact police in his hometown of Valley Center.

A string of accidents along K-254 in Sedgwick county have officers, road officials, and everyday drivers repeating the same thing - 'Pay Attention'.      Stop signs dot the intersection of Kansas Highway 254 and various roads in northern Sedgwick County.       Sometimes, drivers do stop.  And sometimes they don't.      We staked out intersections along Highway 254 Tuesday morning. Even in the rain, people illegally rolled right through the stop sign.      The Kansas Highway Patrol says drivers who didn't yield caused all three accidents this week - two of the accidents were fatal.

Lawmakers want to make it more difficult for sex offenders to be online, particularly social networks. This week, the Louisiana State Legislature passed a law requiring convicted sex offenders to identify themselves on social networking websites, like Facebook. Here in Kansas, the state law requires violent offenders to register with the county, handing over their address, phone number, work information, and email addresses, among other things. According to law enforcement, the law does not specifically require offenders to hand over social network information.

They had just closed the store for the night but were waiting for one last customer.  On April 11, 1992, laBride store owner Patricia Magers and employee Trisha Smith were waiting for him to come and pick up an item.  laBride - a bridal and tuxedo store - was located in a strip mall near Kellogg and Oliver.  A man came into the store but it wasn't who the women were expecting.  He took both into a back room and shot them execution style in the head. The original customer who was supposed to pick up the item also came into the store.

A ceremony honoring Sedgwick County law enforcement officers who have fallen in the line of duty is scheduled for noon Friday in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 455 N. Main. Each year during the second week of May law enforcement agencies across America remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep the peace in their communities.  Since 1871, 29 law enforcement officers in Sedgwick County have fallen in the line of duty. Specifically, 19 Wichita Police officers, eight Sedgwick County Sheriff's deputies and one officer each from Derby and Clearwater have given their lives protecting the area citizens.

Look what law enforcement in Colorado discovered during the recent Click It or Ticket campaign. The story is from the Denver Post .

Wichita police and other law enforcement agencies have a message for you - Click It or Ticket... Drivers can expect to see increased enforcement of seat belt laws as part of the 2013 Kansas Click It or Ticket traffic enforcement campaign. That campaign runs from Monday, May 20 through Sunday, June 2 and is paid for through a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation. Police say drivers can expect strict enforcement of both the Safety Belt Use Act and the Child Passenger Safety Act. More on Kansas Seat Belt Laws from the Wichita Police Department: Cops can stop vehicles and issue tickets whenever they see front seat occupants or children under 14 riding without proper restraint.

Voters in the Reno County town of Nickerson say they do not want to bring back a full-time police department. Results of a mail-in advisory election came in Tuesday. The results show 181 voters said "no" to a full-time police department, 129 said "yes". The Nickerson City Council is not bound to any action because of the vote. The city shut down its police department in 2012 because of budget issues. After the move, the city council said it would accept more input from residents.

The snow kept law enforcement busy overnight, working accident after accident. "I think there's probably a little more snow than everyone thought it was going to be. It came in pretty quick and it was blowing pretty bad for a while there," said Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ryan Tauer. At times before dusk, drivers had a hard time seeing where they were going. "The visibility gets cut down greatly when the snow is blowing. You get the reduced visibility of course when the sun was down it was dark so you couldn't see as well and people were following too close," said Tauer.

Suhani Bhatka and another girl were crossing Broadway near Harry, when a Wichita police officer's car hit her nearly a year ago.  They were not using a crosswalk.  Officials say the officer's view might have been blocked by an SUV.  And he was responding to a burglary call. Mike Schatz, Occupy Wichita spokesman, said a Kansas Highway Patrol report found the officer was speeding. "Possibly going as fast as 51 in a 30 mile per hour zone," Schatz said. "And, did not have any lights or sirens on to show that he was moving faster than what he should have been.

The Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority looks at trends involving minorities in the department's custody. The JJA is holding meetings about part in a statewide assessment. One of those meetings happened Wednesday in Garden City. Officials are trying to find what minority youths are being over-represented in the juvenile justice system. Kansas identified law enforcement, detention and case management placements as the three priorities to be examined in the evaluation. "As a system and as a community we want to make sure that our response to juvenile delinquency is based on the offense and it's based on the needs of the juvenile and not based on the color of their skin," said Elizabeth Neeley, a sociologist involved in the process.

Kansas state lawmakers are looking for a way to tighten sex trafficking laws in Kansas.  State officials are working with law enforcement agencies to design a bill to reduce sex trafficking of minors. The bill would increase penalties for those who entice children into the industry. Attorney General Derek Schmidt, law enforcement agencies and judges are all working together on the bill. The Kansas Department of Children and Families will help children involved in the sex industry to get help.

Rollover accidents have more than doubled in Kansas since 1998. Law enforcement say the increase has happened since people started using cell phones while driving. Take a look at some these numbers.   In 1998 more than 1,800 rollover accidents happened in Kansas. In 2003, when people started using cell phones rollover accidents increased to about 4,300. And the most recent numbers from 2008 show an average of 4,100 rollovers a year. Wichita Police Department Lt. Joe Schroeder will tell you electronic devices are increasingly to blame for car accidents.

The Riley County Police Department found 20-year-old Sam Harvill.  On Twitter, police stated Harvill was found Friday night by law enforcement.  It says he is in good physical condition.  Police thanked the public for their help with the search.  No other details about what happened available right now. Authorities started looking for him Thursday after his mom reported that no one had seen Harvill since 1:30 Wednesday afternoon....

Update: Several officers swarmed a house in rural Western Kansas on Sunday.  They ended up taking Benito Cardenas Jr. back to jail after an intense search for him all weekend long. Four agencies were involved in getting Cardenas to surrender peacefully. It happened in Trego County--that's just north of Ness County where Cardenas escaped from jail Friday night.  He was there awaiting sentencing after being convicted of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy involving a child younger than 14.  Law enforcement across the state were on alert looking for him. Sunday afternoon authorities discovered Cardenas was inside a house just south of Ogallah.  We know there were other people inside the house also, but we haven't confirmed any more details about that.

Wichita Police Captain Jeff Easter will continue his campaign for Sedgwick County Sheriff.  Easter won the Republican primary Tuesday night.  He'll now face Democratic candidate Jefrey Weinman in November. Easter beat Sheriff Bob Hinshaw with 73% of the vote.  Easter received 30,261 votes and Hinshaw received 10,667 votes. Easter says early on in his career his goal was to either become Chief of Police or Sheriff.  "Tonight I'm a step closer to fulfilling my dream of becoming Sedgwick County Sheriff," he said.