KCK jail death, staff shortages loom over WyCo sheriff election. What to know
An election for Wyandotte County sheriff this November comes on the heels of a year fraught with hardships for the department, including a deputy’s line of duty death and a jail worker charged with murder after an inmate died at the county detention center.
Voters will go to the polls to decide between incumbent Sheriff Daniel Soptic, who has led the department since 2021; and Celisha Towers, a former Wyandotte County sheriff’s deputy who sued the department in 2017 for discrimination.
This year’s general election will mirror the last for Wyandotte County sheriff, with the same two candidates seeking office.
In the August primary, Soptic won 6,451 votes according to an unofficial count from the Wyandotte County Election Office. Towers won 2.473 votes.
The victor in November will inherit ongoing challenges at the sheriff’s office. The department, like most law enforcement agencies across the nation, faces staffing shortages. Equipment and technology are due for upgrades. And the death of deputy Elijah Ming, among other stresses deputies face day-to-day, has impacted staff morale, Soptic said.
Even so, Soptic said he is hopeful about his reelection campaign, and remains focused on the department’s accreditation efforts and building community trust, among other issues.
“Everything from our continued community engagement, increasing of our recruitment efforts, accreditation for the agency, all the things that we’ve undertaken the last three and a half years... we’re ready to see some of that stuff come to fruition,” Soptic said in a phone call.
Towers did not initially respond to The Star’s multiple requests for an interview or to answer questions about her candidacy, although did eventually respond to deny some of the information contained in court records.
Campaign materials show Towers is running on a platform of changing investigative processes for officer misconduct, and developing systems for community oversight, among other issues.
Towers claimed election misconduct and fraud in the 2021 general election, alleging wrongdoing by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, among other entities. Her claims of misconduct were dismissed by a Kansas District Court judge in August, and Towers recently asked the court for more time to respond to the judge’s order.
Daniel Soptic (incumbent)
Soptic began his career in law enforcement in 2004 as a park ranger in Kansas City, Kansas.
The park rangers eventually merged with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, where Soptic later became lieutenant of investigations.
In 2013, Soptic became a captain in the operations division, where he led patrol and court transport. In 2016, he was promoted to the rank of major and oversaw records and training divisions. Then in 2020, he was appointed warden over the adult detention center.
Soptic holds a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and a master’s degree in business administration and organizational leadership. He graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2018.
Now seeking a second term as sheriff, Soptic said community engagement has been a highlight of his last four years in the role. The department has expanded from around 10 events in 2021, to over 100 each year he said.
“Relationships have been fostered because of those events,” Soptic said.
Challenges in the sheriff’s office
During Soptic’s tenure, the sheriff’s department has seen fluctuating numbers of staff shortages. As of Oct. 16, the department was around 30 deputies short. It’s a problem that every member of the department has felt in some way, Soptic said.
This issue, coupled with the loss of deputy Elijah Ming this past summer, has had an effect on staff morale, Soptic said. But, he said, he wants to continue to help the department through those tough times.
Another focus in his reelection campaign is finishing the process of accreditation. When a law enforcement agency is accredited, it means they meet a set of professional standards.
Accreditation usually involves a thorough, independent review of the department’s policies and procedures to ensure they align with best practices. According to the University of Kansas, being accredited can lead to increased accountability, professionalism, and community confidence in policing.
“I mean, that’s what we should be striving for,” Soptic said. “Making that next step to be accredited is a huge step, and that’s something we’re working towards every single day. For an agency that’s not accredited, you know, it’s a pretty big lift, but we’re working through it.”
In a phone call last week, Soptic stressed the importance of experience, leadership, and accountability in law enforcement.
While he could not speak directly about a criminal case against a jail worker charged with the murder of 50-year-old Charles Adair, he said the department takes cases like those seriously.
Adair’s family is seeking a $25 million settlement after a deputy kneeled on his back for over a minute in his jail cell, leading to his death, according to court records.
“I can tell you that anything administratively that’s found would be dealt with just like it would with anything else,” Soptic said. “We take holding people accountable very serious, you know?”
“We’re going to look at a lot of the same evidence that the (Kansas Bureau of Investigation)... has looked at as part of their criminal case, and we’ll determine what that looks like, as far as our policies and how they’ve been applied and used, and we kind of go from there,” Soptic said.
Soptic said part of what is difficult about accountability in law enforcement is the limited information he can provide when administrative actions are taken after wrongdoing is discovered.
“Unfortunately... that’s going to be one of those instances that people are really going want to know what happened, why it happened, how it happened,” Soptic said. “And most of it will be, you know, not stuff we can talk about, which is really hard.”
Soptic said he feels that his experience in various law enforcement roles and administrative duties prepares him well for another term as sheriff. He said in a phone call that he asks voters to consider what is most important to them when voting for a candidate, not just for sheriff, but for any office.
“What experience (do candidates have) in navigating the issues that they’re going to confront,” Soptic said. “What experience (do) they have in relationship building and not destroying of relationships, which is, unfortunately, things that I see in some candidates.”
Celisha Towers
Towers, a Kansas City, Kansas, resident, is a former sheriff’s deputy who first sought public office when she ran for Wyandotte County sheriff in 2021.
She has not worked in law enforcement for over five years, and her Kansas law enforcement officer license lapsed in 2021, according to records from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.
After the 2021 election, Towers filed a suit naming nearly 80 defendants including Soptic, alleging “election improprieties.”
After multiple attempts to reach Towers by phone and email, The Star received an email from what appears to be Towers’ campaign email address on Oct. 24 with the name “Celisha Towers” as the sender.
In the email, Towers said she did not agree with a judge’s decision to dismiss her lawsuit against the county and that she believes she won the election for Wyandotte County Sheriff in 2021. In the email, she also said she continues to pursue her case, claiming election fraud.
“I Celisha Towers have already won the Wyandotte County Election and any past elections and all lies have been revealed spiritually and physically for the Sheriff position and in case 24cv4024 will only work for the good in Celisha Towers favor,” the email said.
“...your words and lies have no power to manifest in Celisha Towers reality and I call my power back to me Celisha Towers for the Sheriff position in Wyandotte County Kansas from every entity, every timeline, corporation person lying trying to manipulate my reality and trying to harvest Celisha Towers energy or push a vision of Destiny Swap forward does not have Celisha Towers consent,” the email said.
“Celisha Towers case 24cv4024 is not dismissed by Federal Judge Julia A Robinson and I Celisha Towers will have everything that I desire in case 24cv4024,” the email read.
In 2017, Towers sued the sheriff’s office for discrimination after she was fired in 2016. According to court documents, a federal judge enforced two settlement agreements in 2018 between Towers and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Fraternal Order of Police Wyandotte County Lodge #40.
In the agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County offered to let Towers resign instead of being terminated if she dismissed her lawsuit with prejudice.
In August, U.S. District Court Judge Julie A. Robinson dismissed claims brought by Towers in her second wide-ranging suit, which named nearly 80 defendants. The suit named churches, public officials and other local agencies as defendants.
The court granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss, finding Towers’ allegations legally insufficient and procedurally flawed, according to court records.
Towers said in her email that she is not in the process of appealing the case.
Court records show that on Oct. 2, Robinson filed an order to show cause, requiring Towers to show good cause in writing by Oct. 17 why defendants in the case should not be dismissed after she failed to serve the summons and an amended complaint within 90 days.
On Oct. 23, court records show Towers asked the court for more time to file a response to Robinson’s order to show cause.
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 5:03 PM.
