Johnson County and Iowa City continue talk of joint law enforcement facility

IOWA CITY — Johnson County and Iowa City have begun preliminary conversations about the potential for a joint law enforcement facility. A bond to fund the project could go to voters no sooner than the November 2026 General Election.

The partnership is not yet official; neither the Iowa City Council nor the county’s Board of Supervisors have voted on it. However, unofficial conversations have taken place between city and county staff as well as Supervisors Rod Sullivan and Jon Green, County Sheriff Brad Kunkel and Iowa City Police Chief Dustin Liston.

The current county jail is overcrowded, posing safety concerns for both inmates and staff, and requiring that some inmates be housed at facilities outside Johnson County. Iowa City’s police department is in a similar situation. Officials have said the department’s current space, which is housed within city hall, isn’t fit for long term use due to its age and overcrowding concerns.

A joint county/city project referendum would only require 50 percent approval from voters, as opposed to the 60 percent required if the county alone were to introduce another bond.

The county has previously tried to finance jail improvements through bond referendums in 2012 and 2013. Both proposals received more than 50 percent approval from voters, but needed 60 percent to pass.

A potential joint law enforcement facility likely would house the county jail, sheriff’s office and the Iowa City Police Department.

Both entities recently completed space needs studies

The Board of Supervisors reestablished the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee this year as it explores best options for the future of the county’s jail and looks for other ways to limit the jail population.

The committee is made up of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, county judicial officials, mental health professionals and policy advocates, Iowa City and Johnson County law enforcement, Johnson County residents and other criminal justice experts.

Conversations around a joint facility have arisen as both entities are contemplating the future of their respective facilities. Both Johnson County and Iowa City completed space needs assessments of their facilities in the past two years.

“It was just kind of happenstance, but we started talking with the sheriff and if it would make more financial sense and be a responsible decision to come together, so we're not duplicating or building two law enforcement facilities in Johnson County at the same time, when there's probably an opportunity for some shared spaces,” Liston said at a CJCC meeting.

In July, the supervisors reviewed a completed space needs assessment by Cedar Rapids-based architectural firm Shive-Hattery that outlined a concept for an $80 million office/jail facility with a 140-bed jail.

The supervisors have not decided what to do with that proposal, though some of the county’s five supervisors expressed concerns about the proposed jail’s capacity. No location has been identified for a new facility.

Iowa City worked with OPN architects on a master plan and feasibility study for the future of the city hall complex, which houses both the police and fire department.

While the future of city hall is yet to be determined, the city is looking into the possibility of relocating the fire and police departments to allow more room for other city staff in city hall.

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Liston and Kunkel both said the architectural firms that worked on each respective space needs assessment have had an initial meeting to discuss what a joint facility could look like.

Even though the talk of a new building for the county jail and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office has been in conversation for over a decade, the committee doesn’t see a date for a bond proposal earlier than November 2026 as feasible.

“With architecture and design and funding and all the decisions that would have to be made about what something would look like, it's just not realistic, I think, to get it done in a year and to give it the sales pitch that we'll have to give folks in the community to build support,” Sullivan said at the CJCC meeting.

In the event a bond were to pass, it would likely be years after the passage before a new facility opened its doors, Kunkel said.

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Potential location identified

A potential location for a new facility could be where the Iowa City Transit Headquarters sit today, near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Highway 6, said Liston. The city already owns that land and is in the process of developing a new transit facility, with the hopes of it being constructed in a new location.

The Iowa City Council has not voted on this proposal or committed to putting the land toward a future facility.

“As we grow and as we have more calls, the location of the sheriff's office is very important to my deputies …,” Kunkel said at the CJCC meeting. “Having it somewhere away from downtown makes a lot more sense from a safety and liability standpoint for the sheriff's office too, and still keeping it reasonably accessible to Coralville police, Iowa City Police, North Liberty police and the courthouse.”

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