Ex-Lawrence Cop’s Certification Revoked After Allegations of Bias Against Women – The Lawrence Times

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Post last updated at 4:25 p.m. on Thursday, January 5:

A former Lawrence police officer’s certification has been revoked after an investigation found he acted with bad character and disproportionately arrested young women.

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Brad Williams worked for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office from March 7, 2011 to May 9, 2017, then went to work for the Lawrence Police Department less than a week later.

He resigned from the LPD on January 6, 2021 the day after his second interview with Internal Affairs amid an ongoing investigation. But Williams said he quit because another former officer had been recruiting him for a few months to sell insurance.

Despite numerous complaints and red flags, it wasn’t until last year that Williams’ peace officer certification was challenged. He challenged pressure from the Kansas Commission on Standards and Training for Peace Officers to revoke his certification at a hearing in August.

On Thursday, KSCPOST issued the order revoking its certification, dated December 1, 2022.

“Based on the totality of the evidence, the Board finds that there is clear and compelling evidence to show that Williams failed to meet the requirements for certification as a law enforcement officer, in particular the KSA 74-5605(b)(5) requirement of “good character sufficient to warrant public trust”, thereby violating KSA 74-5616(b)(1),” the order states. “The Commission finds in further that there is clear and compelling evidence that Williams used policing based on race or other bias prohibited by KSA 22-4609 and its amendments in violation of KSA 74-5616(b) ( 6).”

Background

As we reported, according to testimony in the Williams case before KSCPOST, Anthony Brixius, who was then Acting Chief of the Lawrence Police Department, received a complaint in late August 2020 from Jay Armbrister, now Sheriff of County of Douglas. Brixius asked Lt. Mark Unruh, who had recently been assigned to the Office of Professional Responsibility, to open an internal investigation.

The complaint related to concerns that Williams targeted college-age women in his car stops and his fight against alcohol.

Unruh testified that he discovered that from the time Williams’ employment with LPD began on May 15, 2017, until September 14, 2020:

Williams had arrested 83 men and 147 women for allegedly acting under the influence (36% and 64%, respectively). Of the 147 women, 91 were between the ages of 18 and 25, or 39.6% of Williams’ total YES arrests.

Williams had issued citations for minors allegedly in possession of alcohol to one man and 84 women (1.1% and 98.8%, respectively).

It wasn’t the first time supervisors worried about who Williams was stopping and stopping.

In 2016, his supervisors at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office noticed a trend and looked at the numbers. They found that among Williams’ probable cause arrests at his own discretion, for example, arrests that didn’t pick someone up on a warrant or put someone in jail after being convicted by the court, he was arresting 55% women and 45% men. National and Douglas County averages are about 74 percent male and 26 percent female, according to testimony and prison records. However, at the time, DGSO supervisors did not think the difference seemed entirely glaring.

Of these arrests from 2014 to 2020, 24.9% were of women between the ages of 18 and 25; another 24% were women aged 26 and over; and 51% were men.

Disaggregated, Douglas County Jail records for all other law enforcement officers from 2014 to 2020 show that about 10.5% of those incarcerated in probable cause arrests are women aged 18. at 25 and 16.1% of women aged 26 and over.

Beyond the numbers, testimony at the August 4 hearing before a panel of KSCPOST commissioners questioned Williams’ motives and integrity. Her reputation was so well known to local exotic dancers that her supervisor’s name and phone number were scrawled on the wall of a women’s restroom stall at a club, according to reports.

“Williams’ conduct shows that he lacks the character quality of integrity, that he engaged in conduct that violated the public trust and breached the oath required for the certification and to comply with state laws,” the KSCPOST revocation order states.

He also made headlines after he allegedly used excessive force to arrest a skateboarder from Lawrence, whose attorney later raised evidence that called into question the officers’ credibility. (A civil rights-related lawsuit is pending in federal court.) However, KSCPOST’s attorney did not present evidence regarding this case at the hearing.

Learn more about the August 4 hearing at this link.

When we asked for comment for this article, Laura McCabe, spokeswoman for the Lawrence Police Department, replied via email: “Thanks for the opportunity, but we properly shot the investigation a long time ago, trust the process and direct you to KS-CPOST.

We also reached out to Williams and James Jarrow, his father-in-law and attorney who represented him at the KSCPOST hearing, seeking comment for this article.

Below is the full revocation order:

bwilliams

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Mackenzie Clark (her), journalist/founder of the Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more about his work for The Times here. Check out his staff biography here.

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