Deputy chiefs exit, and Independence PD must rebuild trust with new leadership | Porter
The Independence Police Department is cleaning its house — or so it seems. Either way, a change is long overdue.
Last month, The Star reported that two former officers involved in the fatal shooting of an Independence woman and her infant child were no longer with the department. The latest purge includes the recent retirements of two deputy chiefs — Jason Peterson and Michelle Sumstad.
I won’t pretend to know the inner workings of the department or what led Peterson and Sumstad to retire from the police force. According to Sumstad’s attorney, Dennis Egan, the decorated officer’s departure from the agency “was not voluntary,” he told The Star.
Because personnel issues are involved here, we don’t know whether interim Police Chief Douglas Brinkley, new City Manager Troy Anderson or both made the decision to usher these longtime officers out of the door. Both Peterson and Sumstad joined IPD in 1995.
But here is the unfiltered truth about an agency rife with internal conflicts that has led to close to a dozen lawsuits filed by current and former police employees: The department overall must continue.
Lawsuits against police
This is not meant as an indictment of either Peterson or Sumstad, both of whom I have worked with over the years in our respective individual capacities. I truly believe they are fine police officers. However, both have been named in a lawsuit that includes allegations they consumed alcohol while on duty before driving city-issued vehicles, a serious breach of trust that is unbecoming of any officer — if proven true, of course.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by Independence Police Capt. Billy Pope, who leads the department’s internal affairs unit. In the suit, Pope alleges city leaders interfered with his investigations into misconduct allegations involving Peterson, Sumstad and former Chief Adam Dustman. According to The Star, Dustman promoted the pair to deputy chief.
A separate federal lawsuit filed in 2025 alleged the promotions were predetermined and that the selection process violated city policies, The Star reported. Months later, that lawsuit was settled without a dollar amount being mentioned in court documents.
Again, the recent allegations made by Pope, the internal affairs captain, must be proven but tied altogether, these questionable acts and more didn’t seem to occur in a vacuum.
In a statement sent to me by city spokeswoman Sherae Honeycutt, the department will not fill the positions left open by the recent departures of Peterson and Sumstad. Instead, whoever is hired as the new police chief in Independence will have the opportunity to make those choices, a promising development in my opinion.
Picking deputy chiefs
According to an essay by Ben Murphy, a deputy chief for the East Windsor Police Department in Connecticut for police-centric website police1.com, it is critical for police chiefs to select their own deputy chiefs because the deputy serves as their top confidant, tasked with translating the chief’s strategic vision into daily operations.
Allowing chiefs to handpick their deputies ensures operational alignment, builds executive trust, and prevents internal leadership sabotage, Murphy’s essay concluded.
In Independence, it is imperative that the city hires the right person to lead the state’s fifth-largest police department. This city needs a change agent unafraid to hold problem officers accountable for their words, actions and misdeeds.
This story was originally published July 2, 2026 at 2:25 PM.
