Hunter
03/24/21
The Iowa City City Council is working on a review and discussion on nearly 90 action items and recommendations that were made after last June’s tear gassing of protesters.
The Daily Iowan reports that during Tuesday’s work session, the council proposed a change to a city ordinance on a recommendation from the Community Police Review Board to lengthen the statute of limitations for filing a Community Police Review Board complaint from 90 days to 180 days after the alleged misconduct.
City staff has sorted through the recommendations provided by the Iowa City Community Police Review Board and an independent report from the OIR group and grouped them into items that require immediate council action, future action, or no action at the present time. They were further separated by needing legal review, more work sessions to discuss the items, and needing an ordinance change to implement the recommendation.
One of the recommendations the city isn’t comfortable with is dedicating resources to gather information from social media about community sentiment, activism, and protest activity. City manager Geoff Fruin said that the city supports protest activity, and doesn’t think the police need to monitor social media every time a group wants to gather downtown.
City staff also said that many of the recommendations overlap each other, and shouldn’t need legal review.
Councilor Susan Mims said that an examination of the Black Lives Matter protests can help pinpoint what the council and the city as a whole needs to change within the Police Department.
The DI says the independent OIR report included recommendations that revolve around improving community outreach, crisis intervention training, annual training curriculum, and crowd control.