Are police systematically acting outside of the law? Here I will present a few examples showing that the police are in fact, on a systematic basis, acting outside of the law.
Let's head to Title 9 of the City of Iowa City Code. Chapter 3 of Title 9 outlines the 'Rules of the Road' for city. I invite you to sift through all of them. More specifically, I invite you to find the Iowa City Code which specifies that all vehicles must have auto insurance in order to operate within the city. You won't find it. Why not? Because the code does not exist.
OK, you may ask, but why does this matter? I'm getting to that in just a minute.
Below is a memo from the Iowa City Police Department as it appeared in the Iowa City Press Citizen. Please read it and note the language presented.
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Performance Expectations Day Watch 2008
1.) Officers will make at least twenty (20) self-initiated traffic stops each month. Officers are expected to do these stops in a professional manner and with articulable probable cause. In-car cameras with audio will be used for all traffic stops. Officers will be expected to determine the license status of the Driver/Operator of the vehicle, the registration status of the vehicle and determine if there is a valid insurance policy on the vehicle. Officers will fill out the traffic contact information at the end of the traffic stop.
Lt. Dan Sellers
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If you read closely, the memo says that the officer must do many things.
A. The officer must make at least twenty self-initiated stops per month.
B. The officer must determine the drivers license status of the driver.
C. The officer must determine the registration status of the vehicle.
D. The officer must determine the auto insurance status.
E. Officers must fill out traffic memorandum for each stop.
We've already determined above that there is no Iowa City Code regarding valid auto insurance policies. The codes involving proof of auto insurance are located in the Iowa Code. Because there is no Iowa City Code involving auto insurance, the policy set forth in the memo by Lt. Sellers means that the officers are acting in their official capacity as officers of the State Dept. of Public Safety. So, you may ask, why does this matter? Hang with me for a sec and I'll show you why it matters.
Let's head to the Iowa Code for a minute.
321.5 Duty to obey.
All local officials charged with the administration and enforcement of this chapter shall be governed in their official acts by the rules promulgated by the department.
321.6 Reciprocal enforcement -- patrol beats.
There shall be reciprocal co-operation between the members of the department, the state department of public safety and local authorities in the enforcing of local and state traffic laws and in making inspections, although this section shall not be construed to give the state department of public safety any right to establish regular patrol beats inside municipal limits unless requested for a special occasion or emergency by the mayor of such city or the sheriff of the county.
321.492A Quotas on citations prohibited.
A political subdivision or agency of the state shall not order, mandate, require, or in any other manner, directly or indirectly, suggest to a peace officer employed by the political subdivision or agency that the peace officer shall issue a certain number of traffic citations, police citations, memorandums of traffic violations, or memorandums of faulty equipment on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
But hey, what about that policy set forth by the Iowa City Police Department?
A. The officer must make at least twenty self-initiated stops per month.
B. The officer must determine the drivers license status of the driver.
C. The officer must determine the registration status of the vehicle.
D. The officer must determine the auto insurance status.
E. Officers must fill out traffic nemorandum for each stop.
Let's take a quote straight from the author of the police memo.
"If I was to demand they (write) tickets, that would be a quota," Sellers said. "That's not what this is. Now, (officers) may have a perception it's a quota. My perception is you're being lazy and not doing your job." (Source)
For clarification purposes, let it be known that the author of the police memo, Lt. Sellers, has admitted that the officers may perceive the "performance expectation" to be a quota.
If you'll go back and read it again, 321.492A specifies that more than just quotas on citations are prohibited and that said quotas may not even be indirectly implied. Quotas for memorandums are also prohibited.
1. The Iowa City Police Department has enacted quotas that are clearly prohibited by the language of 321.492A of the Iowa Code.
2. The Iowa City Police Department has established regular patrol beats within the city while acting in their official capacity as officers of the State Department of Public Safety, clearly prohibited by Iowa Code 321.6 which clarifies that said officers have no right to establish regular patrol beats within the city. Remember, there is no "no insurance" code within the Iowa City Code. The memo citing that officers must check for valid insurance clearly puts them in the position of acting in their official capacity as officers of the State Department of Public Safety. Their Duty to Obey means that they must obey the provisions promulgated by the State when acting in their official capacity as officers of the State.
So, what do you think? Is the Iowa City Police Department acting outside of the law on a systematic basis?
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5 comments:
your conclusion is incorrect. The statement is the officer to make 20 stops per month. This doesn't mandate the officer to ticket on each stop. It only states to make 20 stops. The leap between 20 stops and a quota of 20 tickets is an assumption. I have been stopped by police officers many times and never received a ticket. Most of the stops are scratch and sniff stops looking for something to ticket me on, but none of them resulted in a ticket. Now making 20 mandating 20 stops without cause is another issue outside the scope of your blog.
I took the liberty of using your information to write to Mayor Lehman asking him to clarify the City's position.
I also posted it here -
http://www.sokuto12.karoo.net/
Best wishes,
Martin J Deane
Hull, UK
Don't be a tool. Your misreading the statutes.
First, while mandatory Insurance Coverage is not needed to drive in Iowa, the law says that drivers of vehicles registered
in Iowa must carry an insurance card verifying liability coverage or proof of financial responsibility. http://www.dot.state.ia.us/mvd/ods/financial.htm
Second, 321.6 seems to limit State police/agencies from setting up safety patrols in the city...not vice versa. Reciprocal doesn't mean that it goes both ways.
Third, the memo only mandates a traffic stop (which is an arrest of sorts) and does not mandate the issuance of a ticket...but it does mandate filling out a memorandum...which seems to violate the law. Bad police man...bad.
Except for your third argument, this blog post is a major fail.
anonymous #2 - The code prohibiting quotas clearly specifies more than just citations as being prohibited. Please read the code again, thanks.
anonymous #3 - good deal
ubuwalker31 - regarding argument #2, I take it to read that when enforcing state code that local authorities in fact ARE acting as officials of the State Dept. of Public Safety and thus have no right to patrol while acting in that official state capacity.
How can you expect the police to obey the law to this degree - the minutia, when they get away with much more blatant lawbreaking - wounding or killing innocents, breaking into wrong houses, etc. You are concentrating on a small paper cut when the body has a severed head.
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