Hunter
11/08/21
The chair of the Iowa City Community Police Review Board is calling for a fundamental change in the way the city’s police does business.
Mandi Nichols is also the director of the Corridor Community Action Network, and co-chairs the University of Iowa Safety and Security Committee. In a guest column submitted to KCJJ and other media outlets last week, she cited the current ICPD policy, which is to, quote, “patrol in a proactive manner, to investigate suspicious persons and circumstances, and to actively enforce the law.” Nichols said the policy isn’t in line with promises the City Council made over a year ago in response for community calls for change.
The proposed change would refocus city policing to serve as a public safety function only, interacting with citizens only when assistance is requested or when there’s a risk to public safety. Nichols pointed out that Iowa City has a higher arrest rate for low-level offenses than 80 percent of the departments surveyed in the state. Her column goes on to state that it’s well-established that punitive measures such as those enacted by the Iowa City Police do not decrease drug use or drug deaths, and can be better addressed by other agencies.
Making that fundamental change in policing policy would decrease opportunities for discrimination, excessive force or other incidents of harm, according to Nichols.
A recent “Back the Blue” law presents a challenge to amending the current policy, but Nichols says when harmful laws are passed, other government entities have a duty to challenge them. She concluded by saying if the City Council fails to follow through on their promises for structural change, their 17-point resolution to do so will lose credibility, and it is time to do something major.
Nichols’ full column: