Kan. Police Department Drops Officer Aptitude Test as Recruiting Lags

The Wichita Police Department has temporarily lowered its standards at a time when it is struggling to recruit officers, a move that appears to conflict with a report that found a lack of minimum standards was sowing discontent within the ranks.

The Wichita City Council has approved funding for more officers than the department has been able to recruit and hire. But the police union says lowering entry standards isn't the answer.

• RELATED: Creative Recruit Pursuits: How PDs Are Attracting Officers

At issue is an aptitude test given to police recruits as an entry exam that was recently — and quietly — eliminated by the department after consultation with new Human Resources Director Jason Hood. The change wasn't announced until the city released a dashboard tracking its progress on a list of changes recommended by national police consultant firm Jensen Hughes.

Wichita police Lt. Aaron Moses initially denied the test had been removed at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, then clarified that a new test is being developed, without saying when it would be completed. The human resources director later confirmed the test is not being used while the city works to write a new aptitude test.

"The entry test has been eliminated," Hood said in a written statement. "WPD consulted with HR and determined that the current aptitude test did not adequately assess writing skills. We are working to identify a better writing assessment tool and plan to work with Kansas Workforce Alliance in identifying a better way to evaluate the writing skills of our applicants."

The Jensen Hughes report, released in March, described the culture of the Wichita Police Department as "unhealthy, and at times toxic." Officers surveyed by the national police consulting firm described WPD as "broken," "dysfunctional" and "horrible."

The dashboard says the decision to eliminate the competency test in writing and grammar aligns with a recommendation to "consult with labor counsel on the internal development of assessment tools that safeguard against negative disparate outcomes for minority candidates."

"WPD has engaged the recently onboarded Human Resources director, Jason Hood, to assist with this effort," the dashboard said. "His initial review of assessment tools resulted in the elimination of the written/grammatical exam as young people have a different style of communicating due to texting and social media communication styles."

After The Eagle asked about the change, the city removed that explanation from the dashboard and replaced it with Hood's written statement.

'WPD should clarify ... minimum standards'

The change seemingly contradicts the Jensen Hughes findings, which noted many officers felt that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the department have resulted in a lack of clear standards.

"Within WPD, some believe DEI efforts have been politically motivated and have resulted in underqualified individuals getting into the department or being put into positions they are not otherwise qualified for," the Jensen Hughes report said. "This perception adds to the feeling of unfairness within the department. In addition to continuing to affirm and advance its DEI efforts, the WPD should clarify and publish minimum standards to ensure all persons hired, assigned or promoted are viewed as capable of performing their prescribed functions."

Wichita Fraternal Order of Police leaders say eliminating the test does not help the department, which has 93 open officer positions, including 77 patrol officers, and a recruiting class of 11 under the new, lowered standards. That's down from the record 50 recruits who entered the academy in 2020.

Dave Inkelaar, a WPD sergeant and president of the FOP, said the test is an important part of the hiring process. It makes sure candidates can actually perform the job they're hired to do.

"One of the sections, there was a narrative of an incident, a 9-1-1 call that you come out to, and it gives you the whole narrative of the events that happen and then there's a police report and you're supposed to just fill in the blanks."

"It's just to make sure someone can actually do the work," Inkelaar said. "It's not that hard of a test."

Inkelaar also said eliminating the test hasn't helped recruit more officers.

"We can't even fill a class with applicants," Inkelaar said. "So I don't think it's helped at all to remove it, other than handicap us by allowing people who may not comprehend, and we've got to identify those problems in the academy when they're taking a position."

Hans Asmussen, vice president of the FOP, said the aptitude test helps weed out candidates at the front end of the hiring process, instead of wasting city resources and recruits' time.

"It's spending resources on some applicants that wouldn't have made it even past the first stage of the hiring process," Asmussen said.

WPD 'interested in hiring the most qualified candidates'

Moses, who appeared at the news conference on behalf of Chief Joe Sullivan, dismissed those concerns.

"I would say that the department is interested in hiring the most qualified candidates possible," Moses said. "And we have a lengthy process to ensure that's happening, regardless of this one aptitude test."

The police academy takes five months for recruits to complete.

Moses would not say why Sullivan did not attend after participating in the first Jensen Hughes news conference in March.

"I'm not going to speak on that. He sent me down here because I'm running this [dashboard] project," Moses said.

"I'm not sure where the chief is, but frankly, as the chief of police, I assume he has other community commitments that he's attending," Mayor Brandon Whipple said after the news conference.

Community activist James Barfield said he wished the chief was there to speak to the new dashboard and the department's ongoing commitment to reform.

"I was a little bit disappointed when I first came in and the police chief was not there," Barfield said. "If he was behind this, he'd be right there lending his support and answering any questions. Nobody can answer better from the police department's perspective than the police chief."

City Manager Robert Layton was also not in attendance Tuesday.

'No such thing as done'

The Jensen Hughes Recommendations Dashboard shows the city has implemented 17 of 54 recommendations since March, with an additional 21 listed as "in progress." Sixteen are listed as "under review," meaning no action has been taken.

Whipple, who is running for re-election, has been a vocal proponent of the Jensen Hughes report and said it wasn't "designed to be put on a shelf so we can check a box."

"There is no such thing as done when it comes to improvement," Whipple said. "We will always work to better ourselves and to serve the community to the best ability possible."

Sheila Officer, a longtime police reform advocate and chair of the Racial Profiling Advisory Board, said at the news conference that she's glad the city is finally getting serious about issues she and others have known about for years.

"We said back in 2020 that the citizens review board was ineffective, inefficient, because they do not have the proper resources," Officer said.

"We talked in 2021 about the Fraternal Order of Police and their barrier in making officers accountable for their actions. We spoke about internal investigations and we spoke about the culture of the Wichita Police Department."

Some of the other items marked as complete on the dashboard don't perfectly align with recommendations by Jensen Hughes.

For instance, under the recommendation to "Create an Assistant Chief Position," the city says it has been completed but then explains that Sullivan has filled two deputy chief vacancies, posted a job opening for a non-commissioned senior public information officer and will "re-evaluate the Assistant Chief position in six months."

Others marked as accomplishments on the dashboard are things the department was already doing, such as reviewing policies on a regular basis and using scenario-based training for officers.

Whipple said he hopes the city can improve officer retention by following the Jensen Hughes recommendations. Police staffing levels have been the highest in the city's history during his term as mayor but attrition has recently outpaced new hires.

"This report is a reflection of the overwhelming majority of our police officers," Whipple said. "A lot of that discussion was about their perspectives and experience. So by achieving the Jensen Hughes recommendations, this was thought of as not just a policy exercise but also what are the current experiences of the members who are serving our community as police officers and what can we do to improve that experience."

___

(c)2023 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)

Visit The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.) at www.kansas.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.