Local law enforcement agency heads spoke about ICE activity, data collection, biased policing and more at a panel Saturday, saying they stand with the community and that Lawrence’s law enforcement is “not the national narrative.”
Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister, Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart and KU Police Chief Nelson Mosley urged community members to work with law enforcement to build relationships during the discussion, hosted by Lawrence’s NAACP chapter.
The topics of discussion were based on a survey of Lawrence NAACP members. The top two identified concerns were lack of trust and transparency.
“We want to work with law enforcement to address community concerns and make Lawrence and Douglas County a safe place for everyone,” said branch President Ursula Minor, who moderated the discussion. “We know that we have serious work to do.”
Outside pressure
Minor asked the law enforcement agency heads about ICE activity that has made national headlines. The Trump administration has engaged in a sweeping crackdown on immigration, including deploying masked agents to city streets with the goal of rounding up immigrants who lack documentation.
Since Trump took office, ICE arrests have soared across the country, including in Kansas. In February, there were multiple ICE arrests in Lawrence.
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Armbrister said he has been saddened and angered by the lack of empathy displayed by ICE agents across the country. Locally, he said, ICE has not had as large a footprint as some places.
“I like to tell everybody, we are not the national narrative,” Armbrister said.
The primary way the county interacts with ICE is through data on people arrested and housed in the jail, which is sent to the federal government and can be accessed by ICE to identify people living in the country without legal status, Armbrister said.
“I’ve had great conversations with our community, especially the community who interacts with our undocumented folks and they have asked me to keep quiet,” Armbrister said. “As much as I want to fight and scream and yell, all I’m going to do is bring the attention of the people that we do not want in this town.”
Mosley said what is happening nationally affects the way people feel on campus. In February, ICE was spotted on campus.
“We just try to educate our students as well,” Mosley said. “Again, we’re here for our students. You know, they reach out to us.”
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Lockhart was blunt in his response: “Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered,” he said, referencing two individuals who were shot and killed by ICE agents earlier this year. He said police officers do not cover their faces or use tear gas on peaceful protesters.
“This is a very emotional topic for me,” he said. “I watched two people be murdered in America by police officers — ICE agents — and our federal government said that’s OK. There’s something wrong.”
Lockhart emphasized that immigration is not a crime, it is a civil infraction. Therefore, it is not something enforced by local police.
Lockhart said he is working with members of Lawrence’s transgender community right now about a bill passed by the Legislature requiring people to use the bathroom of their biological sex at birth in all government buildings, but he has to be careful about what he says publicly.
“The reason the sheriff and I aren’t real vocal about these things is we will get, as a community, punished for advertising our viewpoints, and so we have to be very careful,” Lockhart said. “So, just know that our silence isn’t complicity. Our silence isn’t agreement.”
“Just know that these departments, we feel the same way you do,” Lockhart continued. “We love our people here. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. … Let’s make sure we are working together. Let’s not let those people outside of Lawrence divide us.”
Community interaction
The agency leaders were asked to address concerns with how law enforcement engages with people in the community.
Lockhart said if there are ever concerns about how police act, to let the department know. He also told people they can reach out to the Community Police Review Board, a city advisory group meant to provide oversight for the police.
Police officers do annual training to address biased policing and escalation. Lockhart said the police department does not keep bad officers, and he has fired three in his tenure — two for lying and one for excessive force.
“We are your community,” Lockhart said. “You are our community. We, together, make this community safe and so please help us be part of it.”
Lockhart said he would challenge people to find a profession that has worked to improve more than police during the last decade.
Armbrister said some key changes, such as body cameras, have helped with police accountability and created a culture shift in law enforcement.
“I hope that we can show you through these processes that we are trying to be better,” Armbrister said. “We’re trying to reconcile the past. We may not have been part of it, but we understand the distrust and the fear.”
Lockhart said police officers are the largest provider of unlicensed mental health care. To address that, the city now has mental health response teams through the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. He said mental health support and funding needs to continue to be prioritized.
Armbrister shared a story about a Los Angeles jail for people in custody dealing with severe and persistent mental illness. On the first day it opened, thousands moved in and it immediately became the largest mental health facility in the country.
Armbrister said the incarcerated population today deals with more instances of severe mental health, which have necessitated a new approach from law enforcement. He said there is a team from Bert Nash embedded in the jail now.
Mosley said KU has resources that can be helpful for students struggling with mental health challenges. He said they also have mental health support for officers.
He praised the collaboration among law enforcement agencies in Douglas County, such as during KU sporting events, for example.
Data, staffing and traffic stops
A 2022 study by outside researchers found that Black drivers in Douglas County were stopped more often than would have been expected given the makeup of the Black population in Douglas County. It also found that people of color were nearly twice as likely as white people to be searched in Douglas County.
Minor asked the law enforcement leaders about ongoing efforts to use data to evaluate law enforcement.
Armbrister and Lockhart said they can’t find an outside entity willing to evaluate law enforcement data. Armbrister said they still keep information, but it’s stored away waiting to be evaluated. The data is open to the public.
“I want it to tell a fair and accurate story,” Armbrister said.
Lockhart said the police department usually gets four or five complaints of racial profiling per year and is able to evaluate them using stored traffic stop data. Racial profiling can be challenging to address, Lockhart said, because data doesn’t change the way someone who thinks they were profiled feels, and it’s important to hear and understand their feelings.
Evaluating data is complicated, the agency heads said, because demographics on campus and in Lawrence and Douglas County are constantly shifting because of the transient student population.
Mosley said he has been stopped before and felt he was profiled, so the topic is personal for him.
“We’ve been committed,” Mosley said. “We keep the data. We make sure we look at it. I’ll tell you at this point, since that study, I have not had anything of any concern with any of our officers.”
Agency heads agreed more diversity in law enforcement employees would be good, but there are multiple necessary steps to achieve it.
Armbrister said he recognizes there are systemic issues that make certain people distrust law enforcement.
“I know that this face is the face of war, of genocide, colonization, all the things that have happened historically have mostly happened because of a man that looked like me,” Armbrister said. “And I want to be respectful.”
Mosley said it can be a challenge to find quality staffing for law enforcement at all.
Lockhart agreed and said the community can help by being more vocal about support of local law enforcement so that potential officers feel better about working here.
“We hear from people who we try and recruit from other departments, ‘They don’t support their police,’” Lockhart said. “I don’t believe that. Since I’ve been here for four years, I don’t believe that. I believe you do support us, and there is a lot that we need to overcome together to make your officers feel that way.”
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
Nathan Kramer (he/him), a multimedia student journalist for The Lawrence Times since August 2024, is a senior at Free State High School. He is also a news photo editor for Free State’s student publication, where he works as a videographer, photographer and motion designer. See more of his work for the Times here.
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Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times‘We are not the national narrative’: Lawrence-area law enforcement heads address distrust
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