“If we are using our police officers as tax collectors, we are then going to get really terrible policies for policing.”
Joanna Weiss - Co-Director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center
I have attended multiple meetings in the community regarding these matters. I have seen overflowing city council meetings where the current members of the council make the same excuses that we have heard my whole life. I grew up in Des Moines and I have experienced firsthand heartbreaks related to racial disparity and to the human impact of the war on drugs. I firmly support the community-based suggestions that ending prohibition and pretextual stops will be steps that we can take to address racial profiling. I am running for City Council At Large in part because I feel that people all over the city are ready for these changes.
I support the city boldly and clearly doing the following:
Banning racial profiling
Prohibiting pretextual stops (when officers stop a car for one reason but then use it to investigate something else)
Making data collection and disclosure on all Des Moines police traffic stops mandatory
Creating a citizens' review board to review resident complaints
Requiring implicit bias and de-escalation training
Making marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority for Des Moines police.
The city should go as far as to end prohibition and expunge the records of those charged with related crimes. The citizens of Des Moines should be able to buy and sell their own marijuana and hemp, and related products without fear or excessive taxation, as they do other herbs at our markets. Not only would these items help to end racial profiling, but they would allow us to focus on violent crimes, to finally keep the promises to rein in the backlog on rape test kits, and to work to end human trafficking in Des Moines. Embracing harm reduction will be positive for both first responders and for addiction rehabilitation.
Police officers are rightfully placed in a very special position: we allow them the legal use of force. With this great responsibility, police officers especially need to make sure they treat each person as an individual, presumed innocent, following due process procedures.
The City of Des Moines must give the Des Moines Police Department clear policy regarding what police officers can and cannot do as it relates of acting on their “feelings” or “hunches” in any given situation. Profiling or pretextual stops based on race should be prohibited. Suggestions by the citizenry, law enforcement, Iowa CCI, the ACLU of Iowa, and the NAACP should be given serious consideration as part of developing the policy.
Sincerely, Marco Battaglia