The Iowa City City Council passed a resolution increasing the number of police officer positions as part of an effort to diversify the force.
By Molly Hunter
The Iowa City City Council has passed a measure the councilors hope will help diversify the Iowa City police force.
Normally, the Iowa City police are limited to 66 police officers; right now, there are two vacancies. When filling vacant positions, the city selects qualified applicants from a rank-order list of those who have passed the required exams.
City Manager Geoff Fruin said the city would usually only fill the two vacant positions. In this case, one of the top two candidates is white and the other black.
However, he said, “As we looked at that rank-ordered list and anticipated who the next people who we would offer employment to, we noticed that … three of the next four are minority candidates.”
Because the third- and fourth-ranked qualified applicants are also both black, the city has a unique opportunity to diversify its police force.
Assistant to the City Manager Simon Andrew said the percentage of black officers on the police is currently lower than the percentage of black people in the community.
The resolution discussed Tuesday evening proposed to increase the number of officer positions by two, temporarily bringing the limit to 68 officers. With the two existing vacancies, this would leave the city with four open positions, three of which would be filled by the top-ranked black applicants.
The motion to adopt the resolution was carried 6-0, with Mayor Jim Throgmorton absent.
No future hirings will be made until the number of officers on the force naturally decreases to a number below 66. Once this happens, the resolution temporarily adding two extra spots will end, and the number of budgeted positions will return to 66.
Andrew said that assuming all four applicants accept the city’s offer for those positions, they will be placed in a training academy in January. From that, the officers will join the police.
Councilor Susan Mims emphasized the difficulties of diversifying the city workforce, the police in particular.
“A lot of that is because, as Geoff said, of the way the hiring is done — civil-service requirements, the testing list, etc. And my concern would be if we don’t take advantage of this opportunity and don’t over-hire.”
This concern, Mims said, is due to the similar attempts at diversification, which are being made by police departments around the country.
“If we hired one of [the minority candidates] now and two of them didn’t get in … by the time we have openings six months or a year from now, they may very well have been hired by somebody else,” Mims said.
She said if that happens, the council will be forced to hire candidates from the predominantly white list with which it is left.
“We don’t even have another opportunity to increase the diversity of that workforce until we go out and do another testing session and develop another list,” Mims said.
Councilor Rockne Cole also expressed hopes that diversifying the police force now will pay dividends in the future.
“I’m really hoping five or 10 years from now one of these candidates is in an executive position, too — hopefully, in this community,” he said.
Mayor Pro Tem Kingsley Botchway pointed out another advantage of the extra officer positions.
“I also think it’s going to be helpful with some of the under-staffing that we have currently,” he said.
The city anticipates the monthly cost of each additional officer position will be $7,737.
Mims, self-proclaimed as one of the more fiscally conservative members of the council, said the cost would be worth it.
“That we have this many highly, highly qualified minority candidates on this list, to me, is impressive,” she said. “… [And] I am more than willing to spend the extra money to help us diversify this workforce when we have this kind of an opportunity.”