Demonstrators sit outside Des Moines City Hall during the City Council meeting that saw the first reading of an ordinance banning racial profiling. Photo by Joe Crimmings

The Des Moines City Council unanimously approved the first, but not final, reading of an ordinance banning racial profiling Monday after almost all of the dozens of people who addressed the council urged it to slow down or to revise the proposal’s language to make it stronger, the Des Moines Register reported. A couple of hours before the meeting, the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP held a press conference and urged the City Council to take the ordinance off the agenda. 

“In an attempt to appease recent public pressure, the City Council chose to release a weak ordinance only four hours before the vote. The reality is, this ordinance would effectively work against the goals of Des Moines BLM and other anti-racist organizations,” Des Moines Black Lives Matter said in a statement after the meeting. “In addition, this ordinance is missing a community review board, a ban on pretextual stops, and does not make cannabis a low priority. City Council’s urgency to pass an anti-racial profiling ordinance resulted in the removal of these critical points. Unsurprisingly, our elected officials have not done enough. 

“In addition to supporting all six points proposed by the Alliance, Des Moines BLM demands that the city reallocate existing funds to fulfill all of these points. Were the City to increase police funding in order to achieve these goals, it would demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the racial equity problem in Des Moines.”

Community groups have proposed the adoption of an anti-racial profiling ordinance since late 2018, and each of the city’s attempts since then has been met with stiff opposition at public meetings, the Register reported.  

The second reading of the ordinance will take place at the June 22 council meeting. After a third reading the ordinance would be passed.