One year after George Floyd’s murder, Cedar Rapids prepares to appoint members of new citizens’ police review board

CEDAR RAPIDS — A year since George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police prompted calls for reform across the United States, Cedar Rapids City Council members shared their hopes Tuesday that a newly adopted citizens’ police review board — once members are appointed and trained — will build bridges between the community and law enforcement to make the city safer and more equitable.

As the application deadline of this Monday nears for people to apply for one of nine spots on the oversight board, council members participated in a training session to gain a deeper understanding of how these panels operate across the nation and to envision the impact this board could have.

Cameron McEllhiney, director of training and education with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, told the council that when 2020 started, the organization had identified nearly 200 oversight agencies in the United States out of about 18,000 police departments.

In the last nine months, she said, NACOLE has been in contact with more than 130 jurisdictions including Cedar Rapids looking to establish civilian oversight. There has been growth in oversight over the last 30 years, but the recent wave has brought “tremendous growth” in small and medium-sized cities, McEllhiney said.

“Whereas many began as a specific reaction to an event — an officer-involved shooting, an officer-involved death — we’re now seeing them being created more proactively: Cities looking to do something before they actually feel that they need it so they can prevent the misconduct from happening,” McEllhiney said.

Common threads emerged as the council members shared what they hoped the board would accomplish: increase transparency, promote trust and relationship-building, open dialogue and improve safety.

Council member Dale Todd, chair of the Public Safety and Youth Services Committee, said there has been evolution in policing — not just because of George Floyd’s murder, though he noted that has accelerated the pace of change.

“We believe that this is going to be an opportunity for the community to see in real time what it is officers deal with and also be a real opportunity for us to learn about the concerns from the community and have that discussion and be transparent and hold people accountable,” Todd said. “That has been the goal from Day 1, and nobody is averse to getting that done. In fact, we embrace it and we look forward to getting it done.”

McEllhiney, noting her audience of council members who are tasked with adopting a city budget each year, said providing sufficient resources for the board is key. Cedar Rapids adopted a budget for fiscal 2022, which starts July 1, that includes $25,000 for the panel.

“There are many oversight agencies in the country who have faltered because it tends to be the place that gets cut very quickly when there are budgetary concerns or issues,” McEllhiney said. “We've seen some of them just be decimated and are no longer in existence. We've seen some that went to a place where they no longer could perform the mandate they were given because they had so few scraps.“

Brian Corr, the immediate past president of NACOLE who works for the city of Cambridge, Mass., said the work of the review board provides an opportunity to build trust but also to improve public safety in a collaborative manner.

“New (boards) will often say that five years from now or three years from now or 10 years from now, we are going to look at the model, we're going to look at the results and see if this has been effective. Has it done what we want it to do? And if not, how do we fix it?” Corr said. “And hopefully, it's, 'How do we fix it?' Not, 'let's defund it,' or 'it didn't work, let's get rid of it.'”

As of Monday, Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said, the city had received 54 applications for the board. Applications are available at cedar-rapids.org/CRB.

The ordinance outlining the board’s structure requires a minimum of five people of color, a lawyer, and employees or volunteers from nonprofit service and advocacy groups.

McEllhiney said making appointments is “easier said than done to make sure that you have community members who are able to participate.” As required by the ordinance, members will complete a training course determined by the police chief that is a minimum 30 hours, receive 10 more hours of training per year and accompany an on-duty Cedar Rapids police officer for at least 16 hours per year.

Applications will go to the Public Safety & Youth Services Committee for review. Then, the committee — made up of council members Todd, Ashley Vanorny and Scott Overland — gives recommendations to the mayor who in turn will make selections for the council to approve. The process is on track for the council to consider at the June 22 meeting.

Members’ duties include reviewing quarterly reports with data such as traffic stops and arrests by demographics and tracking progress on certain metrics; serving on the committee that hires the police chief; overseeing a monitoring system for tracking complaints against officers; and soliciting input on department practices.

While McEllhiney acknowledged city staff will help in the process, members “do have a long list of responsibilities and duties, which is fantastic because an oversight entity being able to do these things leads to a more effective oversight mechanism and a better process,” but the council should keep that in mind will making appointments.

Mayor Brad Hart, starting off the council meeting later Tuesday afternoon, acknowledged the anniversary of Floyd’s death and thanked those who stood up for this cause. Just last June, the council committed to seven demands for police reform from the Advocates for Social Justice — chief among them the review board.

Hart said there is “certainly more to do, but much has been done and much change is beginning throughout many communities in our country and Cedar Rapids.”

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