Republicans in the Iowa Legislature are advancing a bill that would eliminate civilian police review boards, and change civil service rules to make it harder for police chiefs to fire, suspend or demote officers they have determined to be “unsuitable or unfit” for their positions.
“Today we send a clear message to the brave men and women who put on their uniform every day, who stand on that thin, blue line,” Sen. Scott Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf, said during Monday’s floor debate on the bill in the Iowa Senate. “We have their back. We stand with them. We respect them.”
The Iowa Senate passed SF 2325 on Monday, on a vote of 37-6. On Thursday, a House subcommittee approved the bill, 2-1. SF 2325 now goes to the House Local Government Committee for consideration.
There are only five cities in Iowa that have civilian review boards for their police departments: Dubuque, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Coralville and University Heights. SF 2325 would force the cities to disband those boards, and prevent new ones from being formed anywhere in Iowa.
According to Webster, the state needs to ban the boards to protect police officers from “political interventions by citizen review boards and the media frenzy that goes along with them.”
Webster did not cite any examples of such political interventions and accompanying media frenzy happening in Iowa, because no such things have happened in Iowa.
State law already severely restricts how the five existing civilian review boards work. They can receive and review complaints about police officers that are then given to the local police department. They can make recommendations to city councils regarding law enforcement policy.
Civilian review boards have no authority over police departments, and play no role in personnel decisions by those departments. They cannot require police departments to take any action. The boards do not have the authority to launch independent investigations in allegations of police misconduct or the actions of any officer. They cannot compel anyone to testify or provide documents. They cannot even require police departments to respond to questions they submit.
Even though the boards are limited in scope and power, they still serve a useful function, Rep. Jerome Amos of Waterloo said during the House subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
“The review board increases transparency, and at the very least, the appearance of transparency to the general public,” he said. “Knowing that citizens sit on the police review boards helps the public to feel that police are being held accountable.”
Amos, the lone Democrat on the subcommittee, was the only one to vote against SF 2325.
The provision of SF 2325 completely eliminating civilian review boards is the most drastic part of the bill; the changes to the state’s civil service regulation would have a much wider impact. While the changes would apply to public employees covered by civil service protections beyond police departments, the bill’s supporters stress that the changes are needed to protect police officers from being fired, suspended or demoted for their actions.
Currently, Iowa Code allows for a police officer to be “removed, discharged, demoted, or suspended due to any act or failure to act … in contravention of law, city policies, or standard operating procedures, or that in the judgment of” the chief of police “is sufficient to show that the employee is unsuitable or unfit for employment.”
SF 2325 drops contravention of standard operating procedures from the list of actions that can result in officers being fired, suspended or demoted. It also changes the standard from “contravention” of law or city policies to a “violation” of law or city policies. It’s an important distinction.
A contravention of a law or policy occurs when a person engages in an action prohibited by law or policy. For that action to be considered a violation, it must be demonstrated that the person intended to break the law or the policy.
Under the changes in SF 2325, a police department would have to be able to prove “by a preponderance of the evidence that an act or failure to act by the employee that is in violation of law, city policies, or department rules, or that the employee is physically or mentally unfit” before firing, removing, suspending or demoting an officer. The bill also expands the rights to challenge those disciplinary actions before a city’s civil service review board.
Iowa is not the first state where a bill banning civilian police review boards has been introduced. In December, a ban bill was introduced in the Florida Legislature. As is the case in Iowa, Republicans control both chambers of the legislature in Florida, as well as the governor’s office.
A 2022 study of the 21 cities in Florida that have a civilian review board by Florida State University found those cities have experienced a small but statistically significant decline in racial disparities in their arrest rates. The study also concluded the boards have improved relations between communities and law enforcement.
Versions of the ban bill have passed both the Florida House and Senate. A final version of the bill is expected to be approved soon, and sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.
Next week is the second funnel week of the session of the Iowa Legislature, which means SF 2325 must be approved by the House Local Government Committee by Friday to have a chance of passing this year.
Although most bills that are signed into law do not take effect until the beginning of the next fiscal year on July 1, SF 2325 would take effect as soon as the governor signs it, because its sponsors have included a provision declaring it is “of immediate importance” to the state.
