NAACP leaders are raising concerns about a bill that would ban citizen review boards in five Iowa cities that review complaints about police.
According to Iowa/Nebraska NAACP president Betty Andrews, her organization helped establish four of those boards.
“We believe in transparency in law enforcement and government and citizens review boards are an opportunity for a fair look-in,” Andrews said Tuesday afternoon, “and making sure our law enforcement knows that we, as citizens, are watching.”
The Iowa Fraternal Order of Police says the citizens review boards in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville and University Heights would standardize the process for reviewing complaints about police. Andrews said Iowa’s citizens review boards were established after specific cases, many of which involved local police accused of racial profiling.
“We’ve seen that time and time in Iowa, that call for justice and not being able to have any insight in what’s happening with law enforcement,” Andrews said during a news conference.
Tuesday was NAACP lobbying day at the Iowa Capitol. Andrews and members of the group met with Governor Kim Reynolds and discussed several priorities. David Walker, co-chair of the Iowa/Nebraska NAACP’s legal redress committee, said Iowans called to jury duty today are randomly selected from Iowa driver’s license and voter registration records.
“The jury pool is filled with addresses that are outdated — 11-12% and sometimes 15% they go in the wastebasket. They are never delivered. People have moved,” Wright said.
And the NAACP proposes that the Iowa Department of Revenue forward the names and addresses of Iowans who file state income taxes to the state’s courts to improve the accuracy of jury summonses. “We’ve seen in some instances where this has been implemented in six states the number of summons that have to be issued are much fewer, costs are saved and jury panels are more diverse,” Walker said.
Andrews said diverse juries boost confidence in the justice system. among people of color. Andrews was recently elected to serve on the NAACP’s national board of directors.