Kake News: Wichita Police Chief Calls for Easier Shutdowns of Repeat-Crime Buildings After North Broadway Fatal Shooting
Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan urged the city council on Tuesday to revise an ordinance that now forces the department to wait for three strikes before shutting down properties tied to repeated crime, a push prompted by a fatal shooting at a North Broadway apartment. The request, highlighted as kake news in coverage of the meeting, seeks quicker municipal tools to close problem buildings rather than relying solely on arrests.
Kake News: City Council Meeting and Sullivan’s Request
Sullivan and other Wichita Police Department leaders attended the Tuesday city council meeting to press for changes to the closure ordinance after the North Broadway shooting. Under the current ordinance the department must establish three separate strikes before it can pursue closure; Sullivan said the recent fatal shooting would count as two of those three strikes at the North Broadway building. He framed the change as necessary to move beyond individual arrests toward broader property-level remedies: "We need to do more than make an arrest, we need to be able to shut these places down, " he said at the meeting.
City enforcement has already issued numerous citations to the North Broadway property, Sullivan added, and the department plans to either have those citations remedied or seek to shut the building down. The immediate cause — the fatal shooting at the apartment complex — created a sharpened urgency for the WPD's request, with leaders arguing the present three-strike threshold can delay decisive action when locations repeatedly draw serious criminal incidents.
Regency Inn Demolition on West Kellogg and Neighborhood Effects
The meeting also referenced a nearby example of a property closure: the demolition of the former Regency Inn on West Kellogg. That vacant motel had been inhabited by squatters and identified as a persistent crime hotspot for neighboring businesses. Jake Thomas, manager of Rayer’s Bearden Stained Glass, said he has worked at the West Kellogg location for 10 years and has noticed measurable improvements since the motel was closed and torn down.
Thomas described specific effects: fewer shopping carts left in his parking lot, less trash to remove and a drop in loitering. Staff no longer spend time filing police reports tied to the motel, and evening classes that meet on Tuesday nights now feel safer, he said. Thomas said he is optimistic about new business prospects for the block, noting that the area has "cleaned up" since the demolition.
The cause-and-effect is straightforward: municipal action to remove a concentrated site of criminal activity produced immediate, observable improvements for adjacent merchants and residents. That example underpins Sullivan's argument that strengthening closure authority can yield neighborhood safety gains beyond what arrests alone accomplish.
What makes this notable is how a single fatal event has catalyzed a broader push to change enforcement policy, linking an acute tragedy to a longer-term debate about municipal powers and property accountability.
WPD leaders left the council meeting with a clear ask: to lower barriers to closing buildings where crime repeatedly concentrates so enforcement can address places as recurring public-safety problems rather than waiting for a statutory tally of incidents. The exchange at the council underscores a broader municipal choice between enforcing individual culpability and using property-based remedies to protect surrounding communities.
The phrase kake news has appeared in conversation about the council discussion, reflecting the heightened public attention. As the council considers ordinance revisions, residents and business owners will be watching whether the city opts to move faster to shut down problem properties or keep the current three-strike path in place.
