photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Jan. 31, 2023.

A city-appointed group that is tasked with recommending possible changes related to police oversight in Lawrence — including how complaints against the department are handled — is hosting a pair of community conversations this month.

The City of Lawrence’s Community Police Oversight work group will host a forum on Monday and a follow-up forum on July 31.

The city announced the two sessions in a press release Wednesday morning. Both sessions will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Carnegie Building, 200 W. Ninth St. The city is encouraging interested community members to attend both sessions, since the second meeting will be based on topics mentioned during the first session.

According to the release, the community conversations are intended to provide input to the work group members that will inform their ongoing work and eventual recommendations to the Lawrence City Commission. They’ll consist of facilitated small group discussions led by Jonathan Morris of J Morris Consulting.

The upcoming sessions follow months of delay, since the city intended to commence the work group, which is tasked with considering changes to how the city handles complaints against police and other policing matters, in September of 2022. The group met for the first time just a couple of months ago in late May.

By extension, city leaders voted to suspend regular meetings of the Community Police Review Board earlier that same month so the work group could complete its work. That board was created in 2018, but it’s only reviewed one of the dozens of complaints made against police since its inception, as its governing ordinance gave the board a limited scope of review.

An electronic questionnaire will be available later this month for anyone who is unable to attend either community conversation, but the city didn’t provide information about where individuals will be able to access it in Wednesday’s release. While the sessions will be recorded and posted online after, there won’t be any virtual participation options for either meeting. People who need any additional accommodations for the meetings, such as sign language interpretation, can reach out to Assistant City Manager Casey Toomay at ctoomay@lawrenceks.org.