Iowa City council approves police substation for southeast side

City Council members and residents alike gave a thumbs-up Monday night to the idea of putting a police substation in southeast Iowa City.

“I see this as an opportunity for the Police Department to become partners in the community more than just in a safety aspect,” said Therese McKenzie of the Grant Wood Neighborhood Association.

The council voted 7-0 to sign a lease for a 1,485-foot space in Pepperwood Plaza, a shopping center southwest of the Highway 6-Broadway Street intersection.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine said the space could be ready by Aug. 1. It will be the city's only police substation.

The idea came from business people and real estate agents as a way to ease concerns about a side of town that has a reputation for criminal activity. Southgate Development Services LLC, which manages Pepperwood Plaza, even offered the space rent-free for the first two years.

Hargadine said the area was selected because of incidents that occurred there last summer, although he admitted things were quieter this year.

“However, you just can't forget what we went through in the last year,” he said.

The plan is to have the department's crime prevention officer based out of the substation, mostly during daytime hours. It will not be staffed all of the time and Hargadine said it would not be considered a precinct. Beat officers would use the space when needed and it would be available for community meetings, he said.

“I think this is another good first step in helping promote community policing in Iowa City,” council member Mike Wright said.

Council member Regenia Bailey said it was important to remember the substation was not a “panacea” and the city and nonprofit organizations must continue to work with the neighborhood.

“We can't view this as just a single step,” she said.

The council and Hargadine said the substation would be evaluated before deciding whether to continue after the initial two-year project.

A few people spoke in favor of the substation, but one person said she wasn't sold on the need for it. Kenya Badgett said she'd like to see the crime prevention officer based in southeast Iowa City, but perhaps with an office in a nonprofit's office instead.

“I just don't think that what we need is what we've been looking at,” she said. “We keep trying to implement the same things.”