Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday voted to drop from a work group’s charge the review of a draft ordinance that the Community Police Review Board and city staff worked on for more than a year.
More than a year of work by members of the Lawrence Community Police Review Board and city staff to revise the ordinance that outlines the board’s duties could soon be scrapped.
Because of “lingering vacancies and unresolved questions,” the city’s first Community-Police Oversight Work Group meeting has been postponed, according to the city.
Frustration abounds as a community board created to advise the Lawrence Police Department and oversee complaints has made little progress in more than a year, and a new work group has yet to meet. Also, three board members have resigned.
The two newest appointees to the Lawrence Community Police Review Board will take the helm as chair and vice chair, members voted Thursday.
The Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday approved a plan for a work group that will revise how complaints against Lawrence police officers are handled and reviewed.
Lawrence Community Police Review Board members appeared pleasantly surprised Thursday evening to hear a summary of complaints made against Lawrence police officers in the past few months.
As Lawrence’s Community Police Review Board is set to review a new task force proposal, one member has resigned over what she sees as an effort to turn the board into little more than “window dressing.”
