Punishment or prevention? The critical role of police oversight boards for public safety

“He was pulling down his pockets, making his pants go all the way down. I am a grown man and you are pulling down my pants to humiliate me.” Jared Clinton described in a Just Voices video interview the evening he and his friend were pulled over in July 2018 in Des Moines. They were released twenty minutes later when nothing illegal was found in their car nor in their actions.

Clinton wasn’t nervous at first — they had nothing to hide. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” but a minute later he had a gut instinct that “this stop would go very wrong.” He overheard the conversation that Officer Kyle Thies had with the driver. Thies asked Clinton’s friend Montrey three times if it was his car, and Montrey explained three times that it was a rental. In a video that went viral, Thies can be heard saying “your buddy is giving me the idea that he has a gun.” Clinton was scared. “I saw my life flash before my eyes — those are kill orders.” The memory of Philando Castile’s murder in front of his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter was fresh in his mind, having happened just two summers prior to the incident.

In a country where 1,000 civilians are shot and killed by police every year, oversight intended to avoid racial profiling and excessive force is not meant to be punishment. Community Review Boards are meant to be a critical component of a comprehensive system that protects the entire community and can be a tool to help build trust.

Accountability should not be viewed as a threat, and it should not be further delayed.

The same day that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Derek Chauvin’s case, a second study by 21st Century Policing to Iowa’s capital city government was released detailing recommendations to improve operations, culture, and the transparency of the police department. Implementation of these recommendations would likely improve the current status of police and community relations.

With recent city budget shortfalls, it is important to consider the economic consequences of the status quo. As of today, the city of Des Moines has racked up $5.2 million in judgments, settlements, and payments. According to Just Voices’ Lori Young “Seven additional pending lawsuits against the city of Des Moines are still to be adjudicated; all stemming from police misconduct during the protests of 2020 in Des Moines, so that judgment total will likely increase substantially in 2024.”

But the emotional cost to affected citizens also must be acknowledged. Clinton describes Jared prior to two unjustified police stops. Jared has “always been that one who knows the latest dance steps and makes everyone laugh. He is like me — extroverted — dances and can be out in crowds and never meet a stranger.” Although unlike countless others, he escaped with his physical life, the quality of it diminished. “After the stop I noticed that his personality started to shrink and wanted to be closer to home and [he was] very unsure of life.”

The Iowa-Nebraska NAACP Legal Redress has been advocating for an Anti-Racial Profiling Bill at the state level and unbiased policing ordinances at the municipal level. They cite that Black Iowans are 10 times more likely to be arrested and are a quarter of Iowa’s incarcerated population, despite only making up 3.5% of Iowa’s general population. While organizations can demonstrate the arrest and incarceration disparities of Black and brown Iowans, the impact of racial profiling on innocent victims simply cannot be measured. David Walker describes the impact on people like Clinton “the worst part of a disparate, pretextual stop for African Americans and Blacks occurred after the stop — having to get out of the car, handcuffed, invasive and demeaning searches, lock up in the back of the police car, leading questions, threats to book, all of which happened to Jared, while no record of the stop was made since no citation issued.”

Walker explains that the NAACP has been negotiating for change for years. “We have been raising these issues [of the] need for data gathering and need to address pretextual stops. Don’t need the last piece of data to know that it is a problem in America.” His thoughts on the progress made so far? “This has been a slow walk.” The 21CP report similarly discusses the culture of the police department and resistance to criticism and reticence to change. The report also documented respondent views that the Department is “often defensive and dismissive of community concerns.”

The 21CP report similarly discusses the culture of the police department and resistance to criticism and reticence to change. The report also documented respondent views that the department is “often defensive and dismissive of community concerns.”

Sharon Zanders Ackiss of Iowa CCI, talked about the need for leadership on these issues. “Until [we have] real progressive leadership — it doesn’t matter the color [of the leadership as long as they] have a vision and acknowledge that we have problems.” She especially wants to see a change in direction and magnitude of community policing. “Why are you fighting something that can be a win-win for the DMPD and the city? Why wouldn’t you work with the community in a fashion that makes you feel good? Black people just don’t see an opportunity for their children.”

Young describes what she desires when it comes to community policing, “it means get out of your patrol car and build relationships with people you serve and protect — many [of the police] don’t even live in Des Moines. Get to know people and get engaged in community activities more than [having] a booth at Juneteenth. If you get people engaged and there is more trust, the community will help you police.”

Ted Stroope, President of the Des Moines Police Gold Braid Organization has studied community policing extensively and agrees that it is important. “Community policing needs to be pervasive in the police department. You can’t help people if you can’t spend enough time with them (you are) only able to avert emergencies.” He also sees the benefit of the enhancement of public safety with participation of other professions “the police were never intended to be mental health caretakers — we should have a level of involvement up to and including personal safety.”

When it comes to oversight, groups disagree on the chilling effect of SF 342 on oversight boards. Some, such as Harvey Harrison of Just Voices see a potential path forward if the city were to “contract with National Association of Civilian Oversite of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) and create a model that is consistent with national best practices and fits within the current statutory limitations created by the Iowa Legislature.”

Despite her son’s trauma, Clinton’s mother, Laural, doesn’t harbor ill feelings toward the police department “I don’t have any disrespect for police officers — just that if you stop and sniff, you do for everybody. You don’t pick and choose.” She maintains her fight for justice despite disillusionment. “I don’t have any hope when we are in a state — a prison state for young Black men.”

The Back the Blue Act was signed by Gov Reynolds a year after some progress had been made after the George Floyd murder protests. Like many other efforts to rectify the unbalanced history of government agencies, this backpedaling calls into question actions at all levels of our government — do leaders want to evoke real change or do they merely participate in temporary, performative actions?

There are ways that local government can take action until we are able to remedy harmful portions of state level bills.

Let’s continue to build bridges and have meaningful dialogue about a shared vision for our communities. “We hear each other and together we are going to take action,” Zanders Ackiss says of her desire to move forward together with officials. “Doesn’t mean we are always right, but we are not always wrong.”

Chris Espersen is a Gazette editorial fellow. chris.espersen@thegazette,com