Wichita homicide detective receives public service excellence award

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A large group of people gathered in the homicide section of the Wichita Police Department on Thursday morning to surprise one of the detectives.

When Detective Robert Chisholm walked in, he was greeted with applause, and the city manager told him that he had won the 2025 Excellence in Public Service Award.

In addition to the city manager, mayor, district attorney, chief of police, coworkers, and Chisholm’s family were part of the celebration.

“The award is incredible. The biggest part to me is it brought my whole family together,” he said. “I’ve, you know, children that live out of town, and to see them here, it’s a wonderful thing.”

City Manager Robert Layton explained why Chisholm is being honored.

“Your history of service to this community, both through the department as well as Lord’s Diner volunteer, Meals on Wheels, and other things you’ve done in the community, you were by far the best qualified person that we had this year and we had some great people nominated,” Layton said.

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District Attorney Marc Bennett said he has worked with Chisholm since the detective joined the WPD homicide unit in 1992. He pointed out that it is rare for someone to stay in homicide for that long.

“That’s unusual to have people dedicated to something like that kind of work, getting called out at all hours of the night, working difficult cases, and to be committed to that for … a lot of years. is remarkable,” he said. “It’s a testament to Rob and the people of the department.”

Bennett credited former homicide Lt. Ken Landwehr, who passed away in 2014, for helping to train Chisholm. Now, Chisholm is helping to lead the next generation of detectives.

“We’re in the Landwehr conference room here,” Bennett said. “Kenny’s kind of all over this place, and Rob’s one of the folks who spent a lot of time with Kenny, and I think that also speaks to why we have such a tremendous homicide unit. You learn from the best, and he’s continued to stick around and hand that knowledge off to the next generation.”

Chief Joe Sullivan agreed that Chisholm is a valuable member of the team.

“Since the moment I arrived here, I’ve been extremely impressed with homicide and certainly you in particular,” he said. “Because of you and the hard work that you do with the rest of the team, it certainly explains why we have one of the highest homicide clearance rates in the country.”

Chisholm said his faith has helped him throughout his career.

“You have to have that with the work we do,” he said. “I think you have to have a strong faith base of some sort. I have a strong support group … early on it was with the officers I worked with, the supervision I had, Ken Landwehr when I first came to homicide, and the supervisors I’ve had since then have done a great job making sure that we know that, as important as this job is, you keep your health first, your family first, and then you put everything you can into the work.”

He said his family is a tremendous support.

“My wife’s never known anything but. I was doing this when I met her, so she’s always been supportive, even when it’s not been easy,” Chisholm said. “And the kids, this is what they’ve known their whole life is me going to work in the middle of the night or not being there when they woke up, not being there when they came home from school, and once again have just been very supportive.”

The Excellence in Public Service Award recognizes employees from Wichita Public Schools, the City of Wichita, and Sedgwick County who demonstrate a strong work ethic, high performance, and a commitment to community. Click here to learn about this year’s school winner. Click here to see the Sedgwick County winner.

The DeVore Foundation has sponsored the award program for 37 years. This year, it presented the winners with $3,000. KSN is also a proud sponsor.

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