LAWRENCE — The newly formed Lawrence Critical Response Team will meet to discuss a critical incident for the very first time following Wednesday's deadly officer-involved shooting. The team aims to provide more transparency to the community.
More than a dozen Lawrence residents are now part of a new initiative aimed at increasing trust between the police and the public.
The push for transparency isn’t new — it was something Mayor Deb Whitfield addressed during her state of the city address.
Those calls came after a video circulated showing officers involved in an altercation while attempting to detain a man in a Walmart parking lot.
“When I hear the community speaking up, I believe in transparency,” Whitfield said to WRTV in an interview back in June. “We are in the early stages of developing a Critical Response Team in the city of Lawrence.”
The team was formed just a few months ago. It is made up of two residents from Lawrence's eight neighborhoods, police command staff and a chaplain.
“Rumors start flying about what happened, and this is a way to have people from the community who we can share some information with,” said Lawrence Police Deputy Chief Travis Cline. “It's Lawrence-led, it's Lawrence-driven.”
When a major incident occurs, the team will be able to review officer body camera footage, listen to police communications, discuss the events and includes time for questions.
“The communication would be a great start because now I can see it from my side, you can see it from my side, I think that’s what it’s going to take,” said Lawrence resident Richard Smith.
Steve Goodroad, another Lawrence resident and member of the new team, said he immediately agreed to join.
“I am the president of our neighborhood association and the crime watch, and I immediately said yes because I care about what goes on in my neighborhood and my city,” Goodroad said. “There's a fairly significant section of our population that doesn't trust the police, and I don't want that to be our neighborhood.”
Like the rest of the residents on the team, Goodroad will be a voice for his neighborhood and help bridge the gap.
The initiative is also being welcomed by residents who aren’t on the team but believe community involvement is key to accountability.
“We'll take their questions. We'll answer them during the meeting… We'll take any input that they have, and if it's valuable, we'll digest it,” Cline said. “We just need to be transparent, and I think the community expects that.”
Lawrence police officials clarified that the new team will not function as a citizens review board. Those types of boards typically provide formal oversight of police departments.
The first meeting of the Critical Response Team is scheduled for Friday.
