Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on May 3, 2016.

Area residents may soon have a new way to file a complaint against the Lawrence Police Department.

At their work session Tuesday, Lawrence city commissioners will review a draft ordinance that would change the name of the current Citizen Advisory Board for Fair and Impartial Policing and would authorize the board to formally accept complaints against the police department from the public. Currently, residents are generally instructed to make complaints about the police department to the police department itself.

“I think the goal is to build community trust,” City Manager Tom Markus said of the proposed changes.

Under the proposed changes, the board also would be allowed to fully review the results of investigations related to racial profiling if requested by the person making the complaint. If the board disagreed with the police department’s findings, it could forward an alternative finding to the city manager’s office for action. Currently the board is not privy to details of the complaints or the investigations of racial profiling complaints. The board receives only summaries from the police department at the end of the investigation.

In the past year, only one complaint regarding racial or other bias-based policing was filed against the Lawrence police department, according to the Kansas attorney general’s annual report. That case remains open.

Currently, the board receives a summary of the investigations from the police department toward the end of the process, before the department’s annual reports are submitted to the state attorney general.

“Once the internal investigation into that incident is finalized, then that is turned over to the board for review in a summary format,” said police spokeswoman Sgt. Amy Rhoads.

Rhoads said the report gives a summary of complaints of racial profiling, as well as use-of-force incidents and Taser deployments.

The draft policy gives the board more involvement in the process.

Under the proposed changes, the police department would still investigate the complaints, but the board would have a “quasi-judicial” function. If the person who made the complaint disagrees with the police department’s conclusion, he or she can make a written request to have the board review it.

“If a person’s not satisfied, the empaneled citizens board has an opportunity to take a look at it and create a verification or a disagreement with the results,” Markus said. “And if that’s the case, then it’s referred to the (city) manager for further review as well.”

After reviewing the investigation, the board would provide a recommendation regarding the complaint to the city manager. As the city manager, Markus makes the ultimate decision as to whether an employee should be disciplined or terminated because of a complaint, but he can consider the board’s recommendation, according to the draft.

The entire process, though, will still remain largely out of the public eye. The complaints, review and deliberations involving the board would be confidential and not open to the public under Kansas law, according to the draft. Board members would be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they can serve.

To reflect the additional duties, the draft policy proposes changing the board’s name to the Community Police Review Board. Appointments to the seven-member board will remain the same, with members appointed by the mayor with the consent of the commission. Members serve voluntary, three-year terms.

The City Commission will convene at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.