Iowa Senate votes to raise penalties for protest-related crimes, strengthen immunity for police
Ian RichardsonIowa Republicans' wide-ranging proposal to strengthen legal protections for police, heighten penalties for several protest-related offenses and make it a crime to not stop for an unmarked police vehicle passed the Senate Monday afternoon.
The bill now heads back to the House, which is expected to approve the measure.
The Senate voted 27-18, along party lines, to amend and pass the bill, which the House originally approved in mid-April. The amended version represents an agreement between the Republicans who control the two chambers, Melissa Deatsch, a spokesperson for House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, confirmed Monday.
During more than 90 minutes of debate Monday, Republicans said the compromise would provide needed protections and benefits for police officers while increasing penalties to deter destructive riots.
More:How Iowa's senators voted on raising protest-related penalties, expanding police immunity
Democrats said the bill is overly punitive, saying it would endanger people who may pull over for a driver impersonating an officer in an unmarked police car. A nonpartisan analysis also found that the increase in protest penalties would fall disproportionally on Black Iowans.
Democrats also criticized Senate Republicans for removing a portion of the bill that would allow retiring public safety employees to receive sick leave credit that could go toward paying monthly health insurance premiums.
"It's a bad deal for cops. It's a bad deal for the safety of our communities, and it's a missed opportunity to learn from racial disparities in arrests," Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, said during debate Monday.
But Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, said the sick leave was not a top issue for law enforcement this year and that the "Back the Blue" bill accomplishes Iowa public safety employees' goal of expand their legal protections under qualified immunity.
"The public here in Iowa, when we took it to the ballot in November, was sick and tired of seeing cops across the country and Iowa being disrespected," he said. "Our response to that: Qualified immunity and some other provisions here to give them some more protections."
The bill is part of a wave of bills across the country that largely Republican-controlled legislatures have introduced after last summer's protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last summer.
Qualified immunity for police; civil immunity for drivers who injure some protesters
►More: This Iowa bill would sharply increase penalties for protest-related crimes. Here's what it means
Iowa's bill, Senate File 342, includes:
- The addition of "qualified immunity" in Iowa code. Qualified immunity is the legal doctrine that protects government officials from civil lawsuits unless they have violated "clearly established" laws. The definition in the bill is more expansive than the standard the Iowa Supreme Court established in 2018.
- Stiffer penalties for rioting and unlawful assembly and expanded definitions of the charges for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, assault and harassment.
- A new aggravated misdemeanor charge for "interference with public disorder control," which the Senate added to the bill Monday to penalize protesters who disrupt law enforcement from "legally deploying a device to control public disorder."
- Civil immunity for drivers of vehicles who injure someone who is blocking traffic while engaging in disorderly conduct or participating in a protest without a permit. The driver must be exercising "due care" at the time and not engaging in "reckless or willful misconduct."
- An expanded definition of eluding that includes failing to stop for an officer in an unmarked law enforcement vehicle.
- Changes to officer benefits related to workers compensation and health insurance.
Lawmakers also debated at length whether requiring Iowans to stop for unmarked vehicles would put them in danger of being attacked by criminals impersonating officers.
"To be charged with eluding for this is crazy," said Sen. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, a retired sheriff deputy who said he drove an unmarked car for 13 years.
Dawson, a law enforcement officer who said he also drives an unmarked vehicle, said he doesn't pull people over often but usually has urgent safety reasons to do so when he does.
Analysis: Disproportionate impact on Black Iowans
Many of the upgraded protest-related offenses listed in the bill would have a disproportionate impact on Black Iowans if current conviction trends continue, according to a fiscal note the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency prepared for the previous version of the bill.
During debate, Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, asked several Republican lawmakers individually about whether they were aware of the disparate impact the bill would likely have, particularly on rioting offenses, for which Black Iowans were 71% of those admitted to correctional supervision in Iowa between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020.
"It's wrong to knowingly increase criminal penalties for an offense that is so disproportionately targeted at Black Iowans," he said.
Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, responded to Hogg's comments by saying the goal of the increased penalties is to deter protesters from breaking the law, whatever their race.
"Apparently, the penalties that are in existence now aren't doing the job," he said.
The higher penalties for protest-related offenses in the bill represent one of Gov. Kim Reynolds' top priorities for the legislative session and include several elements of a criminal justice bill she introduced in January.
However, Iowa lawmakers this year sidelined several other portions of her bill, including the governor's recommendations to ban racial profiling and create a standardized system for tracking the race of people involved in police stops.
Other elements of Reynolds' proposal, such as a new felony offense for "bias-motivated harassment" of police officers and a provision that would penalize cities that cut their police budgets without justification, have also not advanced.
Monday evening, following the Senate vote, two law enforcement groups registered against the bill. Lobbyists for the Iowa State Police Association listed the elimination of the sick leave credit as a reason for their changed status. The Iowa Peace Officers Association also changed its registration to against.
The bill has the support of the Iowa State Sheriff's and Deputies Association, the Iowa Fraternal Order of Police and Iowa State Patrol Supervisors Association. The Iowa Police Chiefs Association and State Police Officers Council are both registered as "undecided."
For the bill to go to Reynolds' desk for her signature, the House must vote to concur with the amendment the Senate passed on Monday.
Ian Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.