Eastern Iowa cities explore what’s next after disbanding citizen police review boards to comply with new state law

Cities across Eastern Iowa are contemplating how best to promote transparency and community engagement in policing in light of a new state law outlawing most citizen review boards.

Earlier this year, Republicans in the Iowa Legislature passed — and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed — Senate File 311. The law — which takes effect today — prohibits cities with civil service commissions from establishing “a board or other entity for the purpose of citizen review of the conduct of police officers.”

At least six Iowa communities had such entities at the time of Reynolds’ signature, including Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Iowa City, University Heights, Dubuque and Ames.

To comply with the new law, Cedar Rapids and Coralville have already disbanded their police review boards and Iowa City is set to do the same at a council meeting next week. University Heights does not have a civil service commission and its citizen advisory board has not been removed from city code.

Now, city officials and civic leaders are working to determine what’s next and what options remain to promote community-police relations while remaining in compliance with state law.

Cedar Rapids considering ‘Chief’s Advisory Board’

The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday dissolved its Citizen Review Board on a 7-2 vote with members Ashley Vanorny and David Maier opposed.

The board was first formed in 2021 with a focus on public engagement, advising the city on department policies and practices, reviewing citizen complaints and serving on the committee that hires the police chief. It had no disciplinary power.

Officials have pledged to find a replacement that allows for continued transparency and community feedback on policing operations, and recommendations are expected to come before council this fall.

As part of that process, city staff are completing interviews with outgoing CRB members and hosting a series of focus groups with area nonprofits and advocacy groups to gain community-oriented feedback on its next steps.

“We learned a lot through the creation of the CRB (in 2020 and 2021), and we’re going to take those lessons and move those forward,” said Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt. “We’ve seen the benefit getting that input has had to build the foundation.”

The Citizen Review Board was created in 2021 after racial justice advocates, led by the nonprofit Advocates for Social Justice, pushed for stronger civilian oversight of local law enforcement in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Recommended Reading

Five years since Floyd protests, what’s changed in Eastern Iowa and what’s next?

One possible path following the CRB’s dissolution is the creation of a Chief’s Advisory Board made up of members representing “a cross section of the whole community.”

As described by Police Chief David Dostal, the committee would have an education-focused mission and host regular public meetings to discuss community questions or concerns related to the policing process.

  Buy Photo

In addition, the department will continue to release its monthly data report outlining arrest figures and incident types. Use of force data is released annually, although Dostal said he is open to potentially releasing those figures more frequently.

But already, that plan has sparked pushback from some area activists.

Several members of Advocates for Social Justice were present at Tuesday’s meeting and expressed concern that a Chief’s Advisory Board would lack the independent nature of the former CRB structure and negatively affect transparency efforts.

ASJ members have pushed for the city to amend the original CRB operations to come into compliance with state law rather than dissolve it completely in favor of a new entity. Further, they encouraged officials to show continued commitment to community-oriented policing and public safety efforts.

“The climate of 2020 after George Floyd was murdered contributed to, if not was the main reason, of the pressure experienced by elected officials and community members to bring about change,” said ASJ member Mimi Daoud. “… The fear of community members is that without that sense of urgency, the momentum we are hoping for might be lost.”

ASJ is one of several entities the city is engaging in its community outreach efforts following the CRB’s dissolution, and that feedback will be included in the recommendations presented to City Council members this fall.

Iowa City considering listening post meetings with police

The Iowa City Council has verbally agreed to disband the Citizen’s Police Review Board, which has been in place since 1997. The Board was established in part to provide local oversight to police misconduct investigations.

However, the city has yet to remove mentions of the board from city ordinances and the city’s charter. The last meeting of the Citizen’s Police Review Board was earlier this week, though the board has not accepted any new complaints since July 2.

Though the formal board has been dissolved, city staff, city council, board members and the police chief agree that there should continue to be some form of committee to replace the review board, though there is not yet consensus on what that could look like.

The review board recommended a committee that would meet quarterly and whose primary purpose would be to strengthen trust between the department and community members.

“The board recommends the advisory committee would be informal and structured, with efforts led by the chief of police a wide variety of community representatives with diverse backgrounds and experience would be engaged, varying staff, external partners and other representative involvement will help increase the understanding of community issues,” wrote Melissa Jensen, chair of the Community Police Review Board, in a letter to city council.

Some council members have expressed concerns about community attendance if the effort is solely led by the police department.

"I think an important aspect to what the CPRB did was that is was citizen run and oversaw. I think that just inherently, when you have people coming and trying to talk about what they're experiencing with the police, I think having efforts be led by the police is a little bit problematic,” council member Oliver Weilein said at a work session.

Weilein went on to say that the city should consider having meetings where community members can interact directly with the police and also having other opportunities to express concerns about the department to other city staff or a citizen board.

  Buy Photo

Iowa City Police Chief Dustin Liston said he was in favor of having informal meetings with members of the public that would allow for a back and forth dialogue and be focused on community outreach.

“One thing we really couldn't do during the current CPRB meetings, is really have a good chat. When members of the public would show up, similar to your formal meetings, they get to talk to you, but you don't get to talk back. And that was often frustrating for the CPRB members, because some of those questions that were raised by the public had simple answers, but it's not on the agenda, so we couldn't talk about it,” Liston told the city council.

City staff, city council and the police department are still discussing what a replacement could look like, and plan to continue discussions throughout the fall.

Coralville looking at a community safety committee

Like to Cedar Rapids, Coralville’s Citizen’s Community Policing Advisory Board was established in 2020 through conversations with community members and organizations surrounding racial justice in policing.

Part of the board’s original charge was to review annual data from the police department about police contacts, review police department policies and recommend training for the department.

The Coralville City Council voted in June to dissolve its Citizen’s Community Policing Advisory Board. The board’s last meeting was in late April, shorty after Reynolds signed the bill into law.

“We're looking at some ways to put together a kind of committee that can keep the line of communication open between the Department, the public and other organizations, so that we can really look at what's happening and collaborate. I think that's a positive thing, and again, I think we are committed to transparency and accountability, and we will continue to be, with or without a formal review board,” Coralville Mayor Meghann Foster said at the June meeting where the board was dissolved.

The new committee would be some form of a community safety committee that would primarily focus on relationship building between the police department and community members. A formal proposal has yet to be brought before city council.

The Coralville City Council still will review annual data about police contacts, something the department did not report prior to the establishment of the advisory board.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

Get a weekly roundup of Johnson County news by signing up for my Johnson County Update newsletter.