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A work group recommends that the Community Police Review Board of Lawrence should monitor the complaints against the police department.
The Community-Police Oversite Work Group was tasked to handle the complaints against the Lawrence Police Department and make recommendations for that process as well as review the current procedure for monitoring the Community Police Review Board complaints.
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The current ordinance underlining the duties of CPRB allows only members to review the appeal of the members of the community of LPD decisions in complaints about bias-based policing. It is a limited scope that board members have not reviewed any real appeal since the formation of CPRB in 2018.
The work group consisted of five community members, each appointed by the Lawrence City Commissioner; Three members of the Community Police Review Board; Two Lawrence Police Officer; And two Lawrence Police Supervisors.
The work group was first held in May 2023. The intention intended to wrap the work within four months, but the group held its final meeting on 12 February to approve the final report. Some members of the work group will submit a final report to the Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday.
The group gave its recommendations green, yellow or red color. Green recommendations between most group members had a fairly strong support; Yellow people usually had some support and curiosity, and group members wanted them to review further; And red people usually had less support and some opposition.
According to the report, the group is encouraging the city’s commission to move forward with green recommendations and would like to see further discussions and progress on other views as per the report.
Here are some major points from the 40-page report of the work group.
- Recommendations with strong consent
- Thoughts for further consideration
- Thoughts without any consensus
- Related coverage: Lawrence Community Police Review Board
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Recommendations with strong consent
• The biggest change of recommendation of the work group is that CPRB should be able to review the appeal of conclusions in all serious complaints against the police department, not limited to racial or other bias-based policing. This will include violations of all levels 1 and level 2.
Violation of level 1 may include a criminal element: severe misconduct; Violation of orders, policies or procedures; excessive force; Racer and bias-based policing; sexual harassment; Illegal discovery and seizure; Violation of civil rights and repeated levels 2 violations.
Violations of Level 2 are less severe, but may include policy violations, unfair conduct, compulsory report or failure in compulsory arrests, or repeated levels 3 violations.
Was mixed support, but also had low to review all appeals of Level 3 infraction for CPRB, including rudeness, insufficient police service, unholy language, minor traffic violations.
The report said, “Level 3 infection is the same type of complaints that can cope with any city employee as a personnel case, and the representatives of the police department saw the level of the complaint as a personnel case, which should not have much investigation than another city employee,” the report said.
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• When someone appeals to LPD’s findings in the complaint, the work group wants the CPRB to inform the complainants of the recommendation given to the city manager, and the city manager should then inform the LPD, CPRB and the complainant of the final decision. They want to promote more transparency and confidence in the complaint process.
• Work group wants to expand the access to the form used to file a complaint and educate the public. The complainants may have a support person to help in their filing.
• They want to simplify and standardize the complaint form and appeal form to collect all the necessary data for each complaint. The form will include the option to provide demographic data, and that data will be tracked and provided to CPRB.
• The group wants to install an option to make complaints directly other than the police department, and “neutral parties” that can accept complaints, but are not a lawyer to the complainant. Some members were worried who could cause bias in favor of the complainant, and others were concerned about logistics. One suggestion was that according to the neutral party report, the city’s Human Relations is a member of the Commission.
• Work group wants to make the complaints of complaint and appeal process accessible to the public. Here are the diagrams from the report (click here to open the PDF in a new tab):
Cpowg-compraint-process
• The work group wants to educate the public about the complaint process after the city recommendations are implemented. “Most of the members believed that an in-tradition event would be well participated with appropriate advertisements and notices provided to the public. According to the recommendations in the role of CPRB, the board should also include community engagement about what does.
• They want the police department to continue to provide CPRB with a monthly listing of all complaints, charges and conclusions.
Thoughts for further consideration
These recommendations received mixed levels of support from members of the work group.
• The complainant must be able to address the CPRB in a direct closed door session to share his perspective of an event. “This proposal expressed concern that it could distinguish a discovered role for CPRB from its recognized review ability.”
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• CPRB should allow those who have rape or hooliganism in their background to serve on boards: “This proposal assumes that community members have pointed to the value of a person with criminal history on CPRB due to their separate experience with police contact.
• To cord the witness participation: An eyewitness with the first knowledge of an event can file a complaint, but only one involved complainant can file an appeal. The issue has already been questioned with CPRB.
• Getting complaints on the phone will increase access to the process and it will be possible to provide translation and disability services.
• Complaints have been discontinued when new evidence is found. “WG thought that if the patterns and trends come out of subsequent complaints, this warrant is reopening and investigating the pre -complaint (S) in the light of new evidence.”
• Written confirmation that a complaint was received, the complainant should be issued within 24 hours.
• Ordinance should be required that both police chief complainant and CPRB should provide results of investigation in writing.
• CPRB should install training modules or courses. “A significant number of members thought that current training is inadequate and suggested as the first module to complete diversity, equity, and inclusion training (DEI), as well as training on information related to complaint process, and how the board members are provided to the board meetings.”
• CPRB should expand from seven to nine members.
Thoughts without any consensus
Most of these ideas had some support, but some protests.
• The item that received the most opposition was another City Work Group recommended that the CPRB merged with the Human Relations Commission. “A single board is likely to weaken the strength of both individual boards,” the report said.
• CPRB should be allowed to ask police or other witnesses to answer questions during a closed door session to review the complaint.
• The time limit to appeal to the decision in the complaint should be extended. The current window is 14 days. “Half of the WG members was worried about whether the current time duration is not enough to find out whether they want to file an appeal. Very Long and police are never able to stop complaints. ,
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• “Any active or retired police, including persons marrying active or retired police, should be able to serve on CPRB.” Active officials are not currently allowed to serve in the board.
• Complaints of withdrawal of CPRB should be followed.
• CPRB should focus on policy review. “Supporters suggested that if CPRB 1 can review the appeals, it should also review the policies that define the levels.”
See the full report on this link.
Some members of the work group will submit their recommendations to the Lawrence Municipal Commission during their meeting on Tuesday. See the full meeting agenda on this link.
CPRB was first met every month, but it has been meeting since the commencement of the work group. This was not immediately clear from the content on Tuesday’s agenda when the CPRB meeting could resume.
The Lawrence City Commissioner will meet at 5:45 pm on Tuesday evening, in City Hall on 20 February, 6 E. The sixth cents meeting is open to the public and live on the city’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/lawrenceksvideo.
People can present written public comments to the commissioners by email by email. [email protected]People can also give public comments in person or during meetings through zoom; Register for Tuesday’s zoom meeting on this link.
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McKenzie Clarke (she/her), Lawrence Times reporter/founder, McLark (at) Lawrencekstimes (DOT) can be reached com. Read more of his work for the time here. See her staff bio here.
McKenzie Clarke/Lawrence Times
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