Marijuana Policy Project

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Iowa City officials must allow voters to decide on forming a more powerful police citizens review board.

City officials, however, do not have to subject the city manager and police chief to a retention vote every four years. They also do not have to allow police officers to issue citations rather than arrests for non-violent misdemeanor offenses such as marijuana possession.

The decision reverses an appellate court decision that had ruled in favor of the city, which had questioned the legality of placing a retention vote on the ballot. Petition organizers Caroline Dieterle and Carol DeProsse originally had submitted a petition with 1,600 signatures in favor of the ballot in 2001.

In the Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Brent Appel wrote the proposal for a community police review board was consistent with the Legislature's removal of limitations of home rule in 1972. Iowa City currently has a police review board, formed in 1997 after the fatal shooting of Eric Shaw by an Iowa City police officer, but it has limited powers, petitioners had said.

The city council decided Friday afternoon to put the police review board on the Nov. 6 ballot.

"The (review board) proposal does not invade the province of the city council by dictating particular law enforcement practices or by controlling budget priorities," Appel wrote. "It simply establishes a permanent entity to engage in public hearings, conduct investigations, and make recommendations to the city council."

However, the court ruled proposals to subject the city manager and police chief to a retention vote and mandating police focus more time on solving violent crimes did not relate to a "form of government." Appel said a charter was not the place to fix policy on enforcement of certain laws, but petitioners could voice their dissatisfaction with city officials' decision by voting them out of office in an election.