A report delivered by the Lawrence police chief in response to the national Black Lives Matter movement led to mixed reactions — including some pointed criticism — from various community members.

Police Chief Tarik Khatib delivered the report to city commissioners at their meeting Tuesday evening. The report provided responses to proposals for policy and structural reforms within police departments that are laid out by Campaign Zero, an initiative of the national Black Lives Matter movement.

Campaign Zero calls for police departments to implement policies on the use of force, body cameras and racial profiling. The campaign also calls for reliable structures to enforce such policies, as well as the need for a community oversight structure.

“A lot of them are very reasonable,” Khatib said. “… It makes sense for police departments to look at this. I thought it’d be good to kind of touch base with this body, touch base with the public in general to kind of take a snapshot of where we’re at.”

Khatib, who was selected as chief of police in 2011, said that the subject of race and policing is part of an ongoing community discussion, and that the proposed reforms and policies outlined in Campaign Zero should be a part of how it is addressed. Khatib noted that the department has had a racial profiling advisory board since 2006.

The Lawrence police department received two complaints regarding racial profiling in the past year, according to reports ranging from July of last year through June 2016. One of those complaints was said to be unfounded by the Lawrence police department, and the other is pending because the person involved decided to file the complaint with the Attorney General’s office. Because of that filing, that specific complaint will not be investigated by the Lawrence department.

The idea that any of the reports of racial profiling or other bias can be handled by the same law enforcement agency they are filed against sparked criticism from the public. Lawrence resident Steve Smaczniak said he was heartened to hear Lawrence at least had a police chief who brought up the idea that something needs to be done by the police department, but said the review process needs to change.

“The only information that (the citizens advisory board’s members) are receiving in these reports is filtered through the police department,” Smaczniak said. “…Why would we honestly be that naïve to believe that it’s different than any other city, because we’re all human. So even if there are one or two bad eggs, if you have a system that protects those bad eggs, you’re basically saying that that’s OK.”

Caleb Stephens, a social worker and organizer with the Lawrence chapter of Black Lives Matter, stressed the urgency of action to reform policing, and said that the information available didn’t go deep enough into the topic.

“No more half truths,” Stephens said. “Talk about real things; don’t show us graphs that don’t have any data. Don’t show me that stuff — that don’t save me. Radical prioritization says we should talk about people first.”

Others who spoke said they were concerned that the police department doesn’t collect data regarding the rates at which people of color are stopped, arrested or have other police encounters.

“Of course this is the only way citizens can know about our current situation in our police force,” said KT Walsh.

Khatib said he spoke with members of several community groups about the topic, including members of Sisters With a Purpose, a local group whose goal is to improve relationships with police. In his presentation, Khatib emphasized that the report was not meant to be the end of the conversation. Instead, he said he saw it as the beginning of work on the topic, which he hopes to involve the community in.

“This is just a quick rundown; I think there is a lot of work to do,” Khatib said.

One area where Khatib noted improvement was needed included diversity in the police force. Khatib said the police force has doubled the number of African-American police officers, but that the force would like to further diversify the makeup. He also noted particularly that there are few Hispanic officers employed.

Following the end of public comment, all commissioners indicated that they supported further action to address some of the topics raised by the police department reports, as well as the concerns voiced by the public.

“In Lawrence, Kansas, we are not different just because we’re Lawrence,” said Commissioner Matthew Herbert. “We have to do things to be different.”