Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib says that his department can learn from the relationship between the Ferguson, Mo., police department and the community. Khatib is requiring his officers to read the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the Ferguson case.

Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib has made the Department of Justice’s report on the investigation of the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department required reading for every officer on his staff.

Khatib said that’s because there are plenty of lessons to take away from the conduct of the Ferguson department.

“The patterns and practices of the department are an example of a relationship with the community gone bad,” Khatib said.

Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib says that his department can learn from the relationship between the Ferguson, Mo., police department and the community. Khatib is requiring his officers to read the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the Ferguson case.

The 102-page report, published March 4, highlights how Ferguson’s police practices, including “unconstitutional stops and arrests,” “racial bias” and “lack of community engagement,” eroded community trust over time. Khatib said he required the reading to improve his police force and to make sure officers are “all on the same page.”

“It’s mind-boggling some of the things that were occurring,” Khatib said. “We want to constantly reflect, gain experience and extrapolate some lesson.”

Lawrence police officers have one month to read the report and are authorized to read it on duty between calls, Khatib said. Captains and sergeants will verify their officers have read the report and discuss takeaways, Sgt. Trent McKinley said.

The Lawrence department may be one of the few in the area to require the Ferguson report’s reading. Representatives at the Salina and Topeka police departments said their officers were not required to read the report. The Kansas City, Kan., and Wichita police departments could not be reached for comment.

In Ferguson, city officials pressured the police department to generate revenue by issuing more and more citations for city code violations, according to the report, adding to the disconnect between the police and the community. For 2015, the city expects fines and fees to make up about 23.3 percent of its budget, the report said.

“The city and police department saw citizens as a source of revenue and a hindrance,” Khatib said “That’s a dangerous circumstance to have because you start to have police officers see citizens not as people they’re supposed to help but as an annoyance to whatever it is you want to do.”

By contrast, Lawrence’s 2015 budget anticipates fines and fees to make up about 4 percent of its budget. Khatib said that looking to citations for revenue is “pretty low-hanging fruit,” but it is “unethical” and “alienates the people you serve.”

“You don’t ever want a police department to rely on its activity for revenue,” Khatib said. “Tickets should be more for a rule of law and consequences.”

The DOJ also found that Ferguson’s practices “are directly shaped and perpetuated by racial bias,” as evidenced by disproportionate arrest rates among races and even by racial slurs and stereotypes in email exchanges between officers.

The Lawrence Police Department’s administrative policy bans racial profiling, stating that any officer “who engages in the practice of racial profiling shall be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, which may include termination.” As part of that policy, all employees are required to receive annual training on racial profiling.

“Racial profiling is illegal, destroys the trust that must exist between law enforcement and members of the public and is ineffective as a means to efficiently enforce criminal laws,” the policy states. “At its heart, however, racial profiling is prohibited because it is wrong.”

Khatib said bias is especially harmful in the law enforcement profession.

“Everybody has biases whether you recognize them or not,” Khatib said. “Our (police officers) biases carry more consequences than someone else’s.”

To avoid racial and other bias, Khatib said officers are also trained in “fair and impartial policing” at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center in Hutchinson, and all Lawrence officers recently completed a five-hour continuing education training course in it, as well. KLETC director Ed Pavey said under the fair and impartial policing concept, officers are taught to:

• Make sure they have “articulable reasonable suspicion” for each traffic or pedestrian stop.
• Take enforcement actions “as they come” without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation or other features.
• Immediately identify themselves as law enforcement and explain to the suspect why he or she was stopped.
• Keep records of all contact with citizens.
• Review all of their actions based on the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics.

But Kansas University professor Chuck Epp of the School of Public Affairs and Administration said racial bias can persist even through “fair and impartial” trainings. Epp surveyed more than 2,000 drivers in the Kansas City metropolitan area and found that police practices like “investigatory stops” disproportionately affect minorities. Epp described this type of stop as “‘who are you and where are you going’ stops,” rather than traffic stops like speeding infractions.

“‘Fair and impartial’ policing doesn’t go far enough,” Epp said. “The distrust we’re seeing (toward police) is a direct response to an ongoing process that treats African Americans as targets for investigatory stops.”

Investigatory stops are done to proactively identify and stop crimes in Lawrence, Khatib said, but deciding whom to pull over should be done without regard to race. Khatib said the department uses a “data-driven approach” to identifying “high crime areas” where officers should be present and conduct investigatory stops.

“Taken to extreme, investigatory stops can be a problem,” Khatib said. “But police exist to prevent crime and provide a safe community. You can’t do that if you’re not taking some reasonable steps to increase your efficiency in how you discover crime.”

Another problem the DOJ identified in Ferguson was the police department’s lack of engagement with its community, “increas(ing) the likelihood of discriminatory policing.” Khatib said his takeaway from that finding was the importance of encouraging his officers to interact as much as possible with the residents they serve.

“The key in any community is making sure the police officers don’t feel different than members of the community,” Khatib said. ‘When police officers don’t feel like they’re a part of the community and the community doesn’t feel the police department is a part of them, it creates a problem just looking for a spark.”

Khatib said he envisions a larger police force where officers would be better able to nurture relationships with community members outside of the back of a police car.

“If your biases develop because you only hang out with other officers, that’s a problem,” Khatib said. “I want our officers to have nonconfrontational interactions with (residents) and our community members to have contact with officers not only when they are a victim or suspect in a crime.”

Khatib said that kind of community policing is occurring, but it would increase if the department had more staff.

“(Officers) don’t have time to interact with the community,” Khatib said.

Lawrence Mayor Jeremy Farmer and Vice Mayor Leslie Soden said Wednesday that they did not have “any solid thought” whether the 2016 city budget would have room for more police department employees, but the issue will likely be discussed at upcoming public safety study sessions.

“It’s pretty premature in my eyes to talk about more officers,” Farmer said. “I think facility needs for (the police department) are first, but, of course, we still have more public input sessions and budget hearings.”