Citizen oversight helps to reconcile harm

I am writing as a representative of clergy and faith-based groups across Cedar Rapids. I hold local, state, and national roles in ministry and am a proud resident of Cedar Rapids.

In 2020, my church and other religious groups here and across our state marched alongside our community members to push for better experiences for people of color across Iowa, particularly in relation to policing. The enactment of the Citizen Review Board into the Municipal Code of Cedar Rapids was a beautiful testament to our collective dedication to fairness and to the safety of our police officers and community members alike.

Fast forward to today and you will find communities of color feeling the pain of attacks from all sides. Federal executive orders are targeted at us. State laws are passed that push back not only the advancements we compromised to achieve but the hope of continuing progress. Locally, each time a new mandate comes down from the state or the federal government, we have to watch like hawks to stem the tide of overcompliance. It is exhausting and it is causing harm.

The case of the Citizen Review Board is a perfect example. After the death of George Floyd in 2020 sparked the attention of folks who were not previously activated, our community came together to figure out what we could do. This was a time when we were grappling with differences in how students experience disciplinary actions in our schools, how we are treated when we are shopping, how health care is delivered, and how frequently we are stopped by the police, charged, and incarcerated.

Part of what we have been grappling with is how our community tends to justify these kinds of differences in our experiences. Centuries-old stories have the effect of vilifying Black and Brown people, marking us as inherently unlawful and dangerous. This feeds an acceptance of the disproportionality we experience in police interactions, because Black and Brown and Indigenous people “just break the law more than white people do.” That is the (untrue) reason, many people think Black Iowans are incarcerated more than nine times the rate of white Iowans in 2021, according to The Sentencing Project.

This historical narrative about us is so far from the truth that it hurts. We need systems to deeply examine the data to understand how people of different races and ethnicities experience their conduct. We need systems that dig into root causes of disproportionality when it is found and then do all they can to address those root causes and build partnerships when they do not have the charge, expertise, and/or capacity to tackle the root causes on their own. That assures us the attacks lodged at civil rights advancements are not going to lead to our disenfranchisement.

It was bad enough that the state went after us by passing SF 311. However, when our City Council chose to fully repeal the CRB instead of just amending the Code, the harm we have been braced against cut even deeper. By repealing instead of amending the CRB, we were told that any advances we make are short-lived and perilous. That whenever we take one step forward, it will be followed by two steps back.

Council members asked us to trust that they intend to create a new board or commission to fulfill the important powers and duties that our CRB had been entrusted with and that are still allowable by law. That is a big ask. But here we are at the table instead of in the streets because we are extending a measure of trust to you.

How can you do that? Begin the redesign of our CRB with the powers, duties, and tasks that the original CRB was charged with that are still allowable by law. After the state passed SF 311, we conceded that the review of police officer conduct could not be done by our Citizen Review Board. We have already compromised by not fighting to retain that responsibility. However, the Legislature did NOT say that citizens cannot be involved in data analysis, research reviews, policy appraisals, and planning.

I was so proud that Cedar Rapids had crafted a Citizen Review Board that included these powers and duties and that met our community’s need for healing, reconciliation, and a path toward just treatment. If the city starts the redesign of a new, independent citizen board or commission with the functions and features of the existing CRB that are still allowable, you will help to ease the harm that communities of color are experiencing daily.

Joshua Milam grew up in Cedar Rapids and was called to preach at 13. He started preaching at the age of 21at the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist church. He is now the senior pastor at Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Des Moines. He has served as chaplain in the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center and as a paraeducator in Iowa’s urban schools among other local, state and national leadership roles.