Cedar Rapids’ Citizen Review Board is gone. But what comes next?

This past week, the Cedar Rapids City Council, its hand forced by the Iowa Legislature, took a final vote to repeal an ordinance that created a police Citizen Review Board.

But that’s not the end of the story.

City leaders have pledged to replace the board with some other entity that will foster public engagement between citizens and police.

“We are in contact with interested groups, whether it's NAACP or ASJ (Advocates for Social Justice) or other citizens that have contacted us,” said City Manager Jeff Pomeranz during a meeting with our editorial board earlier this month.

“So, I think it's clear they may want to move faster, but we're trying to get this absolutely right and include people and their opinions. So, it's going to take a little while,” he said.

Advocates for Social Justice organized Black Lives Matter protests in Cedar Rapids in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in the summer of 2020. Creation of the Citizen Review Board was one of the group’s top priorities.

Advocates and city staff worked for months creating the board, which was appointed by the mayor and began meeting in 2021.

So, this is no ordinary city issue. The outcome will have implications for years to come.

“I know there is hesitation on the part of city staff. But I think we have to do what’s right,” state Rep. Angel Ramirez, who is also president of ASJ, told me this past week. “I think it’s really important that ASJ and other community leaders are in the room.”

Of course, this is happening because the Legislature did something really dumb.

Lawmakers voted to prohibit cities with populations over 50,000 from having police review boards. That means Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville, Ames and Dubuque had to dismantle their review boards by Aug. 16,

The bill says, “A city with a civil service commission established under chapter 400 shall not adopt, enforce, or otherwise administer an ordinance, motion, resolution, or amendment, or use any other means, to establish a board or other entity for the purpose of citizen review of the conduct of officers …”

In grand legislative tradition, the paragraph was added to a bipartisan bill expanding due process rights for civil servants. So, a bad bill, wrapped in a good bill, passed.

Its champion is Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, who spun a fantastic yarn about how police review boards are harmful.

"The concern I have with those is police officers and public servants end up going in front of civilian review boards," Webster said. "And yes, those civilian review boards can't fire them, but they can put a public opinion on those particular people that is unheard of. And then, our friends in the media have a tendency to take off with that and can destroy police officers, firefighters, public works people. It makes it irresponsible."

This fever dream that bears no resemblance to reality in Iowa became law.

Cedar Rapids’ Citizen Review Board focused on improving citizen-police relations, provided guidance on department policies and practices and examined complaints from citizens. Members would serve on a committee hiring a new police chief.

The board analyzed data and looked for trends to address. But the board did not have disciplinary powers.

If there was a media frenzy, I must have missed it. And I love a good frenzy.

It was simply citizens who cared about policing, which at last report still is funded by tax dollars. Making police publicly accountable isn’t going to “destroy” anyone.

“I worry that the impact is being underestimated here, Jorel Robinson, who ran for mayor in 2017 and council in 2019, told City Council members before the vote on Tuesday.

“The CRB was created so that when things go wrong, there is citizen oversight of both individual instances of police action and systemic patterns in policing, whether in a single incident or in patterns of over time. There is an independent body that can look at the facts, ask hard questions and make recommendations without fear or bias.”

Now, the city is searching for a way to save engagement and accountability without running afoul of a lousy law.

City staff have been meeting with the ASJ and other groups to seek a solution. The advocates have made a couple of things very clear.

There’s been talk of creating a police chief’s advisory board to replace the CRB. ASJ members think having such a board is swell, but it is not an acceptable replacement for the review board. Advocates want members of a new entity to be chosen by the elected Mayor and approved by the elected City Council, not the police chief.

“To to be clear, the idea of a police chief advisory board is perhaps a fine and good entity to have here in Cedar Rapids. We appreciate the current chief of police is welcoming input from the community. But a chief's advisory board is no replacement for a citizen review board,” Circe Stumbo, an ASJ Board member, told the council

“We need an enduring independent body with citizen representation named by our citizen elected officials you the City Council, who should be the ones to oversee its enactment of the core work of data analysis, research reviews, policy appraisals and planning” Stumbo said.

ASJ also does not want to start over from scratch. Members believe, despite the new law, parts of the original ordinance can be salvaged.

“We don’t want to go backwards,” said ASJ board member Anthony Arrington.

“Don’t start with a blank canvass. Use the previous board ordinance as a guide to find what can be accomplished without breaking the law,” Arrington said.

Council members Ashley Vanorny and David Maier voted against complete repeal.

What’s missing this time around is the sense of urgency sparked by Floyd’s appalling death and the protests that followed. Urgency gave advocates leverage and prompted the city to create a review board that was among ASJ’s top priorities.

Cooperation that led to the review board was a landmark success in the city’s history. The mayor and City Council members now have promised to carry on the cause.

“I know that the fear of community members is that without this sense of urgency, that momentum we are hoping for might get lost,” ASJ board member Mimi Daoud told the council. “So, I want to continue to invite you all to have conversations with Advocates for Social Justice. Show us your commitment. Don't just tell us.”

Cedar Rapids leaders have a new opportunity to show they value the need for citizen engagement in policing. But will worries about breaking the new law lead them to create a largely symbolic replacement? That would be a big mistake.

Or will they, as Ramirez hopes, rise to “meet the moment?” We’ll find out in the months ahead.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com