Present: Bernard Bidne, Liz Nichols, Mohamad Khan, and Jack Morlan

Staff: Don Grove

Public: Steve Bonnett, Don Nickerson, Jim Thorius, Jerry Kelly, Mary Gibb, and J. P. Porter

Items:

1. Call to Order

2. Recognition of Public and News Media

3. Presentation by Steve Bonnett, police chief for the City of Indianola, on police/community relations. Bonnett reported that:

a. the Indianola Police Department has developed a Mission Statement and several guiding principles, including "[t]he members of the Indianola Police Department are committed to ‘honest, courteous, and professional service without bias or partiality’"

b. one of his unbending policies is that "if an officer lies, that officer will be fired"

c. it’s difficult to hire and keep qualified officers when the starting salary is only $25,400 per year

d. soon all four patrol cars will be equipped with video cameras

e. the primary purpose of video cameras is to help prove a case in court; sometimes however, officers will try to "enhance" the video evidence by prolonging the interaction between the person stopped and the officer, and most times that’s unnecessary and unwise

f. individual police officer’s customer relations abilities can vary tremendously; for example, he has one officer who has issued four times more tickets than another but has received no customer complaints this year while the officer who has written 1/4th as many tickets averages at least one complaint per month

g. he keeps a spreadsheet tracking all customer complaints by police officer and nature of complaint; the complaints run 5 to 1, 5 "not doing enough" and 1 "doing too much"

h. he is interested in "community policing" and believes that it works, but his Department needs to work on a few other things first

i. his officers have recently gone through excellent cultural awareness training with a retired college professor, Alan MacGruder; one of the questions that his officers asked during one of the sessions was how to respond to being called a racist; MacGruder said the officer should first try to understand why the person thinks the officer is a racist

j. he has two officers who speak "broken" Spanish and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office has a Spanish-Speaking deputy who is available for translation services

4. Presentation by Don Nickerson, U. S. Attorney, Southern District of Iowa, on police/community relations. Nickerson reported that:

a. every community should have its own definition of "community policing"

b. community policing happens when the community sits down with the police department as a community and identifies public safety and police/community relations issues/concerns and works on resolving those issues/concerns collectively and collaboratively

c. community policing happens when the community, all the stakeholders, along with the police department, develop strategies for enhancing public safety

d. community policing also happens when discretion is given to street officers to interact with the public to explore and implement solutions to neighborhood safety and relations problems; in most police departments, however, it is the street officer who typically has the least amount of discretion in the chain of command

e. a big challenge for ICRC is to help prepare Iowa police departments and comminutes for the growing non-English speaking Latino populations, not only because of the language barriers, but also because of the cultural differences; for example, many Latino newcomers deeply distrust police and the courts because of their experiences in their native countries; that distrust causes newcomers not to cooperate with police -- not to report crimes, not to give needed information, and sometimes even to run from police

f. police departments and communities need to recognize the barriers/differences, secure adequate number of qualified interpreters, and develop communication "connects" with the various minority communities

g. police departments and communities need to anticipate problems and develop proactive approaches

h. ICRC needs to help police departments and communities become proactive

i. ICRC needs to facilitate discussions between the community and police; to find models for discussion so that the discussions have structure/format and so that the discussions don’t break down into name calling and finger pointing debates

j. police departments need to be reminded that they need to put up with the insults and the criticism at these community meetings and they need to keep asking the question, "How can we work with you to solve this problem (your concerns)?" . . . and little by little, by staying the course, people will come around and begin working on solutions; people need to understand that public safety is their problem, too

k. ICRC needs to contact and collaborate with regional and national organizations that train police departments on community policing; e.g. Upper Midwest Regional Community Policing Institute in St. Paul, Mn

l. ICRC needs to collaborate with his office, police departments, community leaders/members who have had problems with police, and community policing trainers in scheduling/holding seminars/conferences, introducing/promoting community policing to police departments around the State

m. his office will support ICRC ‘s efforts in promoting community policing, including monies to sponsor training sessions

5. Presentation by Jim Thorius, vice president of Student Development, Simpson College, on police/student community relations. Thorius reported:

a. several years ago, the college formed a campus security unit which has worked proactively with the local police department on training and developing better communications with students

b. in Spring 1997, hate graffiti appeared in 15-20 locations around campus; campus security worked with local police on investigation

c. last Spring, two former students of Simpson were hired as officers by Police Chief Bonnett; that, too, has helped to enhance collaboration/cooperation

d. after he participated in an honest conversation study circle on race in Des Moines a few months ago, he began organizing a study circle program at the College involving faculty, staff, and students on race and gender issues

e. 1% of student body of 1,344 is comprised of International students; 4-5% of the student body are minority (approx. 60 students)

f. the College has a number of student diversity organizations, including a new organization called CMS, Concerned Multicultural Students; CMS is planning on publishing a biweekly newsletter

g. as reported in the student newspaper, "The Simpsonian," the College recently held a Student Forum on diversity issues

6. Presentation by Mary Gibb, 8th Grade Counselor, Indianola Middle School, on appreciating diversity in the schools. Gibb reported that 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at the Indianola Middle School have a number of diversity-related programs/activities, including:

a. studies of foreign countries

b. guest speakers on diversity

c. class exchanges and pen pals with Edmunds Fine Arts Academy in Des Moines

d. pen pals with students from New York and France

e. Culture Day

f. studies of art around the World

g. Civil Rights Movement

h. studies of stereotypes and prejudice

i. "A World of Differences" 8th grade thematic unit designed for students in the core classes of science, language arts, math, and American History

7. Board of Supervisors of Buchanan County v. ICRC and Alice J. Peyton

Bidne moved to remand the case to the administrative law judge for further consideration in accordance with the provisions of the Iowa Supreme Court decision. Khan seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

8. Next Meeting Date/Time/Location

January 22, 1999/10-Noon/ICN

ICN Sites:

Muscatine Community College

Northwood High School

Sioux City Community College #2

Waterloo East High School

ICRC

Bidne will invite the Worth County Sheriff to speak on police/community relations. Grove will ask Commissioner Smith to invite the Waterloo Police Chief to speak. Grove will also ask Commissioner Flores to invite a representative from Muscatine LULAC to speak on police/community relations.

John Baskerville, Assistant Professor, African-American History, UNI, is already on the agenda to speak on the new African-American Historical and Cultural Museum that is going to be built in Waterloo.

9. Approval of Minutes of October 23, 1998 Meeting

No motion made to approve. Minutes of the October 23 and November 20, 1998 Meetings will need to be reviewed/approved at the January 22, 1999 Meeting.