Hunter
02/17/21
Members of the Iowa City City Council have reviewed the independent investigation into the use of tear gas and flash bangs at the June 3 protests, and now say they want to hear from the city manager and law enforcement.
The OIR Group’s report was released last month, and it analyzed the events that led up to the use of those crowd control devices on Iowa City protesters as they neared Route 80 that evening. After interviewing those who were part of the protests and analyzing videos of the event, the report laid out nearly 40 recommendations on how to handle future similar situations better.
Mayor Bruce Teague and councilor Susan Mims agreed that they don’t have expert knowledge on the subject, and supported having both new Police Chief Dustin Liston and City Manager Geoff Fruin go through the recommendations and report to the council on how they plan to address them.
Mayor Pro-Tem Mazahir Salih said she wanted greater emphasis placed on public feedback to the report.
The city has a lot of material to go through regarding law enforcement. Fruin set up a plan to restructure the police department that included 36 action points, and there are 22 proposed changes to the Community Police Review Board to consider as well. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Fruin acknowledged that it will take some time to work through the recommendations. He said that discussion on police interaction with protesters are going to be challenging, but critical.