Topeka City Council member Mike Lesser is running for re-election in District 9 for a pretty simple reason: He has more work to do. His first term, he said, was stained by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My goal is to make Topeka a better place for our families,” he said. “I want my kids to want to stay in Topeka, and the way you do that is by good jobs, supporting business and bringing quality of life activities to Topeka.”
Lesser said he spent most of his life in the city and once interned for former Sen. Bob Dole. The Seaman High School and Washburn University graduate works as president of Peoples Insurance Group.
Since 2013, TPD has only used “lethal defensive action against” people six times.
Haltom presented these numbers to the Police and Community committee at Thursday night s meeting. The committee spent another two hours Thursday night further reviewing the department s policies to determine whether any changes need to be made.
There were 572 use of force incidents by TPD between 2017 and 2019. Of those incidents, 236 cases involved white men, 56 involved white women, 176 involved Black men, 29 involved Black women, 50 involved Hispanic men, seven involved Hispanic women, seven involved Native American men and four involved Native American women.
Black individuals made up 35.8% of the incidents despite only making up 10.5% of Topeka s population, according to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Hispanic individuals accounted for 9.9% of use of force incidents and make up 15.4% of Topeka’s 2019 population.