A community board may soon be able to review police investigation files related to certain racial or other bias complaints made against police.
At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider allowing the city’s Community Police Review Board to review the police department’s internal investigation file when the person who made the bias complaint disagrees with the police findings.
The current board, the Citizen Advisory Board for Fair and Impartial Policing, reviews only a summary of the investigation provided by police that some have said provides limited information. The proposed change is part of a revamp of the board meant to give it more oversight.The proposed ordinance now states that the board will be provided a copy of the entire file of the internal police investigation, which is conducted by the police department’s Office of Professional Accountability. Previously, the ordinance did not guarantee the board would have full access to the file.
As previously written, the ordinance only stated that the board shall “review the police department’s investigation to determine if further investigation is needed.” City legal staff previously told the Journal-World that in some complex cases that may be a written summary rather than the investigation file itself.
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