The Wichita City Council heard a staff presentation on the Wichita Area Restoration Program — known as WARP 2.0 — that provides quick, clerical help to residents trying to remove driver’s license suspensions and regain legal driving privileges.

WARP program lead Dr. Nathan Emery told the council the city designed the program after reviewing local court data and models from Durham, North Carolina, and shifted the service away from a contract legal model to an on-site clerical model to provide same-day assistance. “We iterated. We created what we kinda call WARP 2.0,” Emery said, describing a city-run office on the third floor of City Hall staffed by a customer-service clerk who helps residents pull driving records, identify what is holding a license and complete motions or restricted-license applications.

The program’s goal, Emery told the council, is to reduce barriers and speed use of statutory tools enacted in recent years to forgive fines, fees and costs. “The assistance needed to be accessible when sought,” he said, adding that many people do not require full legal representation but do need help interpreting Driver Solutions records and completing clerical paperwork.

Why it matters: Wichita and Sedgwick County have a large number of suspended licenses that staff say are concentrated among people with longstanding, fee-based suspensions. Emery cited statewide and local figures used to design the program: 227,000 suspended drivers in Kansas in 2022 (a number that had roughly doubled since 2017), with 25% of those suspensions in Sedgwick County despite the county holding 19% of the state population. He said roughly 70% of suspensions stem from failure to meet financial obligations.

Program results and operations: Emery said WARP 2.0 has operated at full capacity for about six months in its current form after an initial soft opening and a cyber-attack-related pause. In that period, he said the program served 234 participants with 776 related cases. Of those, he reported roughly 210 people had received relief and that 201 people had suspensions lifted across 564 cases; he also said 66 people (about 28% of those served) were able to legally drive after receiving assistance, though some gains can be temporary when other revocations occur. “We’ve helped as many as 120 people in a month,” Emery said; he added the program now averages about 70 monthly participants.

Staffing and cost: Emery said the city ended its contract with Kansas Legal Services after intake delays driven by conflict checks and instead redeployed existing city staff to run the service. He described the current model as low cost because it uses in-house staff rather than an outside legal-services contract.

Next steps and policy tools: Council members and staff discussed expanding outreach to increase walk-in traffic and formal referrals from Sedgwick County traffic court. Emery said the program will reengage its steering committee, explore advertising and partnerships, and consider how to use “substantial compliance” provisions in SB 500 to clear suspensions for people who meet statutory conditions. He described a planned “outdate” or warrant-clearance effort that could apply to roughly 2,000 people and 5,000 cases identified as possible mass-relief candidates.

Limitations and caveats: Emery and council members emphasized that the office provides clerical and informational assistance, not full legal representation. He said Kansas Legal Services’ earlier conflict checks made legal intake slow, and the city intentionally narrowed the scope of WARP 2.0 to avoid creating additional barriers. Emery also warned that some individuals who regain driving privileges later lose them if they incur disqualifying convictions or repeated violations.

Community partnerships and referrals: Emery said WARP 2.0 works with local groups including 2nd Chance and the Racial Profiling Committee; staff take payments at partner locations and distribute flyers to community organizations to increase referrals. He said most current awareness comes from organic social media and word-of-mouth, and staff are pursuing more formal advertising and county partnerships.

Council reaction and next steps: Council members praised the effort and asked about mass amnesty or event-based relief opportunities. Emery said staff are examining the legal definitions of substantial compliance under SB 500 and planning an “outdate” process and renewed steering-committee engagement to inform potential expansions such as limited expungement assistance.

The council did not take a formal vote on the program in the discussion recorded; staff described operational results, planned outreach, and potential future expansions.