Lawrence City Hall is pictured in this file photo.

Lawrence city leaders will soon discuss how to proceed after an outside consultant recommended the city halt the current process to improve the community board meant to provide oversight of complaints against police.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive a letter from the Community Police Review Board regarding the board’s ongoing work to draft a new version of its governing ordinance aimed at strengthening its oversight and review of complaints. The board is seeking the commission’s direction regarding the recommendation of a city-hired consultant that the board should stop “unilaterally” drafting the new version of the ordinance so the city can instead convene a new review process that directly involves police and members of the police union.

Because of the limited review power it was given when it was set up, the board has yet to review any complaints against police since its creation four years ago, and board members have previously described it as a “rubber stamp” and a “public relations arm” for the police department. The commission directed the board to review its governing ordinance about 1.5 years ago, and the board has since researched best practices, collected public input and gotten legal advice from the city as part of its creation of the draft ordinance.

The city previously attempted to revamp the board after the Lawrence branch of the NAACP called for a more powerful and independent board to review complaints against police. The current ordinance governing the board — which was arrived at in 2018 after a long debate that included pushback from the local police union — allows the board to review racial and other bias complaints only if the person involved appeals the police department’s decision in writing within 14 days.

The board’s working draft of the new ordinance calls for broadening the board’s purview to allow the board to receive all types of community member complaints concerning police and review the police department’s internal investigation, among other changes. However, Citygate Associates, the firm the city hired to conduct a comprehensive study of the police department, calls for a new work group to be convened and does not clearly call for an expansion in review capability. The recommendation states as follows:

“Immediately convene a Working Group of key stakeholders who will have an interest in the outcomes of any new Community Police Review Board ordinance. Build, at a minimum, an 11-person team that will use an interest-based approach to jointly design a best practices-based system. The team will be coordinated by the Assistant City Manager, consisting of the Community Police Review Board members, the Chief of Police, a Police Officers’ Association representative, the City Attorney, and at least three minority residents of Lawrence. The result will be the reconstitution of a Community Police Review Board with an expanded scope of public engagement duties.”

Citygate’s recommendation was based in part on survey responses received from some police department employees that expressed mistrust in the board and a 2001 study that claimed buy-in to an oversight system from key participants, including the police chief and police union leadership, is more important than the system’s structure.

The board discussed the recommendation in June and, in the absence of further direction from the commission, decided to continue its review, as the Journal-World reported at the time. Some board members expressed skepticism in the Citygate recommendation, mentioning its reliance on a 20-year old study and saying that stronger oversight would naturally create friction.

The board’s letter to the commission states that since then city staff have expressed interest in organizing a “team” separate from the board to review the ordinance. The board expresses “deep concerns” about the consultant’s recommendation that the board stop its process and the effect of a parallel process that could potentially create competing outcomes. The board states that it had planned to conduct a series of focus groups with key stakeholders, including police, and asks that the commission grant it permission to continue its review process.

“In an effort to avoid conflict, inconsistencies, and confusion, the Board would suggest that it be directed to continue with a review that recognizes the community engagement that is reflected in the current draft ordinance, and not abandoning the community work that the Board has completed thus far,” the letter states.

Board members will be present at the meeting to discuss the letter and respond to questions, according to a memo to the commission. The Lawrence City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.