Teresa Woody, of Kansas Appleseed, and Kunyu Ching, of ACLU of Kansas, appear for a Sept. 6, 2024, recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — The Wichita Police Department’s “gang list” that targeted young Black and Latino residents based on where they lived, the clothes they wore and funerals they attended will be overhauled after a federal judge approved a settlement agreement in August in a class-action lawsuit.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Kansas Appleseed sued the City of Wichita in 2021 alleging constitutional violations on behalf of Progeny, a Wichita-based criminal justice reform organization that focuses on youth empowerment. The suit received class action status in 2023, and the Wichita City Council voted unanimously in April to settle the case for $625,000, which went toward litigation costs and the services of a Johnson County judge who will oversee implementation of the policy changes.
“On its inception, our clients were interested in pursuing a change in policy. They were not in it for the money, and so damages claims were never a part of the case,” said Kunyu Ching, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, in a conversation for the Kansas Reflector podcast.
Kansas statute deems someone as a criminal gang member if at least three of 10 criteria are met, one of which says someone is a gang member if they adopt a “gang’s style of dress, color, use of hand signs or tattoos.”
The Wichita authorities’ interpretation of the statute resulted in a gang list that contained mostly Black and Latino residents and department policies that put people on the list based on businesses they visited, who they were photographed with and who they were friends with. The advocacy groups said police used unreliable evidence — or no evidence at all — to surveil, harass and discriminate against people they believed were gang members or associates.
The policy changes under the settlement agreement mandate the police department revise its criteria for adding someone’s name to the list, remove all gang associates and inactive gang members or associates from the list, and begin notifying people if they’re added to the list, according to the Aug. 26 written decision from Chief U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren. The new policy allows minors to avoid being added to the list, and it creates an appeals process so people can challenge the appearance of their names on the gang list.
The city plans to create a way for the public to check and see if they are on the police department’s gang list, said Megan Lovely, a City of Wichita spokeswoman, in an emailed statement.
“This mediated agreement is intended to protect the constitutional rights of the citizens of Wichita and allow law enforcement to conduct effective investigations for public safety,” she said.
Marquetta Atkins-Woods, executive director of Progeny, said in a news release the case’s outcome was a “prime example” of youth instigating policy change.
“Our youth were part of the plaintiffs in the case, which is heroic and fierce, to take on something like this,” she said. “I think this lawsuit and settlement are proof positive of how community can come together to be a catalyst for change.”
The settlement agreement also created the position of an ombudsman to oversee a new appeals process, and the Johnson County judge will ensure the agreement’s terms are implemented over the next three years.
Under Wichita’s previous policy, no one was notified if they were on the list, and there was no way to take their name off of it. If convicted of a crime, people who appeared on the list would face higher bond amounts, longer sentences and harsher probation conditions.
“So it’s designed for you to fail,” said Teresa Woody, the litigation director at Kansas Appleseed.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Wichita’s was the only municipal police department in Kansas using a gang list. The list started as hard-copy files in a box.
“Today it’s a database,” Ching said. “But, essentially, it’s a way for the WPD to keep tabs on individuals that they believe are gang members or gang associates.”
Wichita police have used a gang list for roughly 30 years, so generations of residents have been impacted, she said. Regardless of whether criminal activity was occurring, police would scout “funerals, weddings, family celebrations, public venues, public gatherings like concerts” as reasons for adding or keeping people on the list, Ching said.
Three of the ACLU of Kansas’ clients in the suit were family members, Ching said. Their active status on the gang list was renewed when they gathered at one of their homes for a wake for an infant family member who had died. Police, referencing the nationwide association of street gangs known as the Bloods, called the wake a “Blood party” at the time, Ching said.
Black police officers testified that they avoided contact with certain family members because they feared they themselves could be added to the list, she said.
Woody said there’s no doubt in her mind that police and the Sedgwick County district attorney knew the list, and the way it was used, was wrong.
“I think it was really a way of policing these communities, or over-policing these communities, with an assumption that the folks who lived in those communities were likely criminals,” Woody said.
According to an ACLU of Kansas analysis of 2022 data, more than half of people on Wichita’s gang list were Black, nearly 30% were Latino and around 6% were white. Wichita’s population is 68% white with Black residents making up less than 8% of the population and Latino residents making up about 14%. Mostly white police officers staffed Wichita’s gang investigation unit, Woody said.
As of May 2022, roughly 5,500 people were on Wichita’s gang list. Woody said roughly two thirds of the people on the list could be removed under the police department’s revised policy, which went into effect Aug. 26 .
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