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Virtual town hall: Officials optimistic for next steps to produce change

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Community leaders joined 41 Action News Thursday for a conversation about change following a week of protests in Kansas City, Missouri.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, Fraternal Order of Police President Brad Lemon and community activist Justice Horn all joined 41 Action News anchor Dia Wall for the conversation.

Community leaders like Horn are calling for major changes in the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, including body cameras, a community review board and local control of the department.

Mayor Lucas is one of five police commissioners and appears to be on board with a lot of those demands.

He said that boards, mayors and other organizations dictate what police policies are around the nation and how those are enforced, so the first steps are for those people to review what force they're authorizing officers to use.

“This isn’t the rank and file that has the issue. It’s our command staff,” Lucas said, noting a good start would be clearer policies handed down from the board.

Lemon said that Kansas City needs more than just five people at the table when it comes to changing those policies, which is why activists are calling for local control.

"We need our elected officials to act and actually implement policy change in the Kansas City community," he said.

Lemon said that on the police side, "this is not something that we're going to be able to absorb overnight."

He said that while conversations about accountability within the department aren't always public, terminations do occur and he does not feel there are any barriers preventing accountability.

When asked about the merit of looting and property destruction in protests, the group consensus seemed to be disappointment.

"You're wrong," Lucas said about the vandalism.

He said that those participating in the looting need to call for change instead of turning to destruction and distraction.

"We have not at all pushed the agenda of looting," Horn confirmed.

One other item Horn called for is bias training for officers policing urban areas, arguing that nine months in the police academy is not enough for an officer to be prepared to serve the community.

“I think we need to make sure that our police officers are fit to serve the community,” Horn said. “They’re not going off to war, they’re going off to make the community a better and safer place.”

Lemon said he believes members of the department "just want to do a better, great job for the city."

"While we may disagree on some areas, and we may have some road to travel to get to where everybody wants to get to, understand that we’re men and women just like everybody else that do a job, and we love this community just as everybody else does," Lemon said.

Lucas said he wants Kansas City to be a role model for other jurisdictions when it comes to positive community relations.

"Our city is really, really trying to make sure that we get it right. Trying to make sure that we can be a model for other communities," Lucas said about his hope for change.