HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - February 10, 2022, Special Meeting of the Ames City CouncilMINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE AMES CITY COUNCIL
AMES, IOWA FEBRUARY 10, 2022
The Special Meeting of the Ames City Council was called to order by Mayor John Haila at 6:01 p.m.
on the 10th day of February 10, 2022, in the City Auditorium, 515 Clark Avenue. The following
Council Members were in attendance: Gloria Betcher, Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen, Tim Gartin, Rachel
Junck, and Anita Rollins. Ex officio Member Trevor Poundstone was also present.
The Mayor recognized Iowa State University (ISU) President Wendy Wintersteen and Sharon Perry
Fantini, Vice-President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at ISU, who were present.
Mayor Haila stated that the purpose of this Special Meeting was to hear the presentation by the
consultant on the Traffic Stop Study. The presentation was followed by questions from the Ames City
Council, ISU Student Government, and the general public. According to Mayor Haila, questions were
also accepted social media (YouTube and Facebook) sites.
Student Government Speaker of the Senate, Dawson Weathers, stated that he was filling-in for Vice-
President Megan Decker. Mr. Weathers called the Student Government meeting to order at 6:04 PM
on behalf of the ISU Student Government,
PRESENTATION OF AMES POLICE DEPARTMENT AND IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
(ISU) POLICE DEPARTMENT TRAFFIC STOP STUDY RESULTS: Michael Newton, Associate
Vice-President for Public Safety and Chief of Police at Iowa State University, reiterated that the
purpose of this meeting was to discuss the findings of the Traffic Stop Study conducted by CR Research
Group for both Police Departments. The Ames and ISU Police Departments had requested the
independent review to understand whether or not racial disparities existed in traffic stops and the
outcomes of those stops. Both Departments had heard concerns from the community and were aware
of concerns nationally and requested the Study to find out what they could learn. Chief Newton pointed
out that this Study is one step in their attempts to build a more welcoming and inclusive environment
on Campus and in the community. Other steps that have been taken were noted, such as bias-based
training for officers, ongoing conversations with the community about race and other things that are
happening in the community, and many outreach activities.
Geoff Huff, City of Ames Chief of Police, reiterated that both Departments had asked for and undertook
this endeavor voluntarily. Both Departments desired to work with the consultants to look at their
discretionary stop data and to learn more about their Departments and those traffic stops. Chief Huff
noted that one of the many values of the City of Ames is Continuous Improvement. He said that they
will review the results of the Study and the recommendations to assist their Departments to better serve
their diverse residents. One of his goals, as the City’s Chief of Police, is to ensure that each resident
feels safe and valued. It was noted that copies of the research group’s reports are available on the Ames
and Iowa State websites.
Chief Huff introduced Dr. Chris Barnum, Professor at Ambrose University and President of CR
Research Group, L.C., who conducted the Study. Mr. Barnum has been conducting similar research,
mainly through St. Ambrose University, since 2010, and has a lot of experience performing these types
of studies for cities in Iowa. Dr. Barnum said his strategy for this evening will be to give a global
overview of the methodology used, present the findings, and answer any questions anyone might have.
He noted that findings will be presented for two studies: one from Ames Police Department and one
from the Iowa State University Police Department. It was pointed out by Dr. Barnum that Ames and
ISU Police Departments had actually invited CR Research in to analyze the data; they were not sure
what the outcomes of the Studies would be, and he commended them for doing so.
Dr. Barnum stated that when they go into a community and begin to look at police data, the focus of
their review is to find disproportionality, which is an over-representation of drivers who identify as
people of color in the police traffic stop data. According to Dr. Barnum, they use the term
disproportionality because it does not necessarily signify bias. It is possible for disproportionality to
occur for a number of reasons, including differences between racial groups’ driving behaviors, vehicle
condition, or driver’s license status. Once they have the data, they look for disproportionality on two
levels: first, a difference between police stop percentages by a racial category and a reliable benchmark,
and secondly, a difference between groups, based on race, in traffic stop outcomes (tickets, warnings,
and arrests). To come up with the best benchmark for this purpose, they set up observers at intersections
who record the race of each driver. They then compute the percentages of the drivers based on race. Dr.
Barnum further explained that they split the community into observation zones because the proportion
of different races on the roads will vary from location to location. Ames had 14 observation zones,
which were chosen based on areas where there is heavy traffic flow and where the police are making
the most stops. The police stops that occurred in each observation zone are then reviewed . They
compute the same percentages for the police data that they have in their benchmarks, and they compare
the two. Dr. Barnum gave a hypothetical illustration to further explain that methodology.
A slide was shown by Dr. Barnum where the traffic stops by observation occurred in 2018 and 2019
for the Ames Police Department. He explained the Ames Police Department Disproportionality
Indexes for 2018 and 2019 and how to interpret them. In summary, Dr. Barnum stated that there was
no strong evidence that they had high confidence in that there was any disproportionality occurring in
the Ames Police Department.
A slide was also shown by Dr. Barnum where the traffic stops by observation occurred in 2017, 2018
and 2019 for Iowa State University Police Department. The Disproportionality Indexes for each of
those years was shown. In summary, Dr. Barnum stated that there was no strong evidence that they had
high confidence in that there was any disproportionality occurring in the Iowa State University Police
Department.
Regarding Individual Officer Index, Dr. Barnum showed an example, not using Ames data, to illustrate
what a pattern of disproportionality would look like. Charts showing officer index values for 2018 and
2019 for Ames officers were interpreted. There was no strong evidence that showed any
disproportionality existed in the traffic stops made by Ames Police Department. The same charts were
shown for Iowa State University Police officers in 2017, 2018, and 2019. For both Departments,
officers’ index values were generally clustered together with no outliers. For ISU Police Department,
the chart in 2017 and Type II Chart in 2018 each contained a single officer who had a conspicuously
higher index value than other officers; however, that no longer appeared to be the case in 2019.
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Dr. Barnum explained that stop outcomes simply means what happens after a traffic stop has been
made. The three types of outcomes tracked were citations, warnings, and arrests. He advised that nearly
all of the arrests made in all years of the analysis for both types of benchmarks were for
nondiscretionary charges. Nondiscretionary charges were defined as the officer has little or no
discretion in deciding to arrest; the officer must make an arrest. Some arrests were to cite and release,
meaning the driver was issued a summons to appear in court in lieu of being taken to jail. According
to Dr. Barnum, the vast majority of arrests made by both Departments were for nondiscretionary
charges.
Odds-ratios values were explained by Dr. Barnum. This estimator is useful when comparing two
distinct groups and summarizes the odds of something happening to one group to the odds of it
happening to another group. He said an odds-ratio value greater than one indicates an increased
occurrence of an outcome for a non-white driver. Arrest data was interpreted by Dr. Barnum. He
presented a summary of the outcomes of arrests after a traffic stop for Ames Police Department, as
follows:
Citations and Warnings: The information suggests that when compared to 2018, non-white-driver
disproportionality in citations decreased in 2019 for both types of odds ratios. The results suggested
that white drivers were more likely to receive a ticket than others.
Arrests: Disproportionality in arrests increased in 2019 for both types of odds ratios. Taken together,
the findings suggested greater disproportionality in arrests involving African American drivers than in
other people of color. Dr. Barnum stated that it was important to note that almost all arrests were made
for non-discretionary offenses, meaning officers were required to make an arrest.
The data for ISU for 2017, 2018, and 2019 pertaining to citations, warnings, and arrests were shown.
There was disproportionality showing in arrests of African Americans for all three years. Dr. Barnum
provided a summary of the ISU Police Department stop outcomes, as follows:
Citations and Warnings: Results suggested that for Type I, when compared to earlier years, non-white-
driver disproportionality in citations and warnings decreased in 2019. The information for Type II was
substantively similar. When compared to earlier years, non-white-driver disproportionality in citations
and warnings decreased in 2019.
Arrests: Disproportionality for both Type I and Type II odds ratios increased in 2019. Taken together,
the findings suggested greater disproportionality in African American arrests than in others. Dr.
Barnum again noted that almost all arrests were made for non-discretionary offenses.
Conclusions:
1.Findings from the examination of disproportionality in vehicle stops showed that, at the
Department level, index values were nearly always less than 0.05 for all years of the Study for
both Departments.
2.Individual officer analysis suggested no clear outlier officers in disproportionality for 2019.
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3.The results for the analyses of stop outcomes indicated decreasing and comparatively low levels
of disproportionality in stop outcomes for citations and warnings.
4.The findings showed increasing levels of disproportionality in arrests. Even so, it was again
important to note that almost all arrests were made for nondiscretionary offenses (officers were
required to make an arrest and had little or no choice in the matter).
Dr. Barnum stated that there were some limitations of the Study, which were as follows:
1.The data for this Study came from sources that were not initially or primarily intended for the
examination of disproportionality in traffic stop decisions or outcomes. Consequently, some
important information was not available.
2.The classifications for the reason for the stop were in some cases ambiguous.
3.Some nondiscretionary stop information resulting from traffic accidents many have been
included in the data.
QUESTIONS FROM AMES CITY COUNCIL AND ISU STUDENT GOVERNMENT: Ames
City Council Member Beatty-Hansen asked Dr. Barnum if benchmark observations were done at night
too. Dr. Barnum answered that the “lion’s share” or majority were done during the evening to late-night
hours. They did not split out when the observations were taken; they combined all hours. Ms. Beatty-
Hansen then asked, if the non-discretionary arrests are discounted, was there still enough data to come
to a conclusion. Dr. Barnum replied that there were so few that he couldn’t really analyze that. It was
also asked by Ms. Beatty-Hansen if disproportionality was measured by area of town. According to Dr.
Barnum, they do that, but it is weighted by the number of stops.
Council Member Gartin had questions about the mechanics of identifying race, specifically when a
person is from a multi-racial background, which may make it difficult to identify a person’s race
accurately. He asked how they accounted for the subjective aspect of identifying the race of the driver.
Also asked by Mr. Gartin was whether the driver is being asked to self-identify their race, and if not,
is the officer making a record of what they believe is the race of the driver. Dr. Barnum said that when
their observers are watching traffic, it is merely their perception of what the driver’s race is. Chief Huff
said that the race that is recorded on the citation or arrest comes from the person’s driver’s license,
which is coded by the Department of Transportation. The officers are not asking the person to identify
their race and they are not guessing. Chief Huff noted that race is no longer required on the Iowa
driver’s license, so in the future, it might say “unknown.” Chief Newton added that was true for his
Department. He noted that the State and the FBI only recognize four races, which limits what can be
entered..
City Council Member Junck asked Dr. Barnum to expound on why the classifications for the stop were,
in some cases, ambiguous and if there was any sorting of what stops were for what reason at all. Dr.
Barnum replied that the data that he received was not primarily made for this type of study; it came
from other data (Tracks, Central Square police data) sources. That data was not included because they
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didn’t want to guess at the reason why the stop was made.
City Council Member Betcher asked, given the large number of non-discretionary stops, whether Dr.
Barnum observed anything about the legal system of the State of Iowa and how disproportionate it is
that Blacks are incarcerated at a much higher percentage in Iowa than elsewhere. Dr. Barnum replied
that most departments are now tracking the kinds of arrests that are being made when they do this type
of study. He added that they do see the same results that the majority of arrests are non-discretionary.
Chief Huff said that when the Ames Police Department saw the disproportionality in the arrests, it
further analyzed the arrest data. The results were as follows: three on warrants; five for OWI, 3rd
Offense; one for OWI, 2nd Offense; 12 for OWI, 1st Offense; one for no valid driver’s license; 11 for
Driving Under Suspension (released on citation); two for Driving While Revoked; 11 Driving While
Barred; and one for Aggravated Assault. Chief Newton stated that, in 2019, 60% of the African
American stops that were cite-and-release were for Driving Under Suspension. The system codes those
as arrests, which might not be the case in every County. Chief Newton recognized that it is a cycle that
leads to more arrests. Society, as a whole, needs to look at that differently. Chief Huff indicated that
the Story County Attorney’s Office has a program to assist drivers who find themselves in that type of
situation so they don’t fall into that cycle.
Alyannah Buhman, Student Government Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, noted the number
of non-discretionary arrests and asked what the initial reasons were for the officer making the traffic
stop. Chief Huff said that was hard to put together after the fact. They would have to take a “deeper
dive” to find out that information, which they have not done at this point. Chief Newton said the same
held true for ISU Police Department. They might need to look at adding more to the reports. Chief Huff
added that the records management system is designed to get information to the courts; it is not
designed well to get information that is needed for this type of study. The Student Government member
then asked if the data from this study had been compared to any other state universities, i.e., University
of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa; and if so, how did it compare. Chief Newton answered that
the data had not been compared as those institutions, to his knowledge, had not undergone such a study.
He shared that they looked at the data from other clients of Dr. Barnum, and in most cases, Ames and
ISU were lower in the data categories. Pertaining to the initial reasons for traffic stops, Chief Newton
shared that everything they do is on camera and the supervisors are required to review a certain number
of videos per month.
Another Student Government member requested to know, if a future study is done, how they plan on
going through the data and making sure that it is consistent from year to year. Dr. Barnum said he
touched on that in Recommendations. There is an issue with what the State of Iowa is doing with the
driver’s licenses, e.g., taking race off of licenses; every year there will be more “unknowns.” Ideally,
Dr. Barnum would like to see a data collection system be developed just for this type of study. There
are other communities that have that now. In terms of bias, they like to look at whether the question
has been asked. He sees it as a legislative issue about coding race. Chief Newton said they plan to look
at the data annually. He has already reached out to researchers at ISU to see if they can use their own
inside-ISU talent to look at different ways to collect the data. The Student Government member then
asked if the footage from body cameras agreed with the data that was in the findings of the Study.
Chief Huff said that it did. Chief Newton concurred that they had not found anything that didn’t, He
noted that both agencies share monthly reports and try to be as transparent as possible. Chief Huff
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shared that both agencies try to make it as easy as possible for people to file complaints if they feel they
have not been treated fairly. Going forward, the Ames Resident Police Advisory Committee is being
formed, which is another way people can make a complaint.
Eddie Mahoney, Residence Hall Senator for Student Government, asked why there was no data
included from 2020 or 2021. Chief Newton answered that they started with looking at 2018 data, but
they felt one year was not enough to come to any conclusions. They decided to go with 2018 and 2019,
but he wanted to go with 2017 data as well since that was when he became the ISU Police Chief. There
were not many traffic stops in 2020 and the first half of 2021 because of the pandemic. Mr. Mahoney
asked about the benchmarking process and whether it would have been done in 2020/2021 and was it
entirely representative of the data from 2017 and 2018. Dr. Barnum said the observers were observing
drivers in 2018 and believes it is probably representative of both years.
Another person representing Student Government said, from his viewpoint, 2019 was a year of
unusually high disproportionality for the ISU Police Department. He asked for an explanation of why
that occurred. Chief Newton said that, for some reason, the majority of ISU Police Department’s stops
were non-discretionary arrests that resulted in cite-and-release for Driving While Suspended. When
he looked at the data, some people were contacted several times; that can be a cycle because the officers
recognize the person whom they had stopped before for Driving While Suspended. Chief Newton said
he doesn’t know why so many suspended drivers (60%) drove in 2019. The student also asked Dr.
Barnum what reason he has seen from his other studies as to why white drivers were issued more
warnings than other drivers. Dr. Barnum stated that there are also times when white drivers were
actually issued more citations. He provided a hypothetic profiling scenario that they look for, but did
not find in Ames. Chief Newton noted that sometimes it is driver behavior or an officer is making a
stop to inform the driver of a headlight out or an equipment failure.
A Senator for Student Government asked if they thought data from more recent years will show a
change in the outcome. Chief Newton said it was hard to tell, but they will continue to provide officer
training.
Another Senator for Student Government, asked if, in future studies, it was shown that an officer was
making significantly more arrests of person of color, would they know who that officer is and if
something could be done to talk to that officer to find out what’s going on. Chief Newton said they do
know who the officers were and have reviewed their statistics. He noted that officers do not get a choice
on what calls to respond to, so some officers respond to calls that require non-discretionary arrests
more than others. Chief Newton said that he can say confidently that they looked at the data and did
not see an issue with the officer(s) that were involved. Chief Huff stated the same held true for the
Ames Police Department. If they were to see higher levels of disproportionality, they would seek to
know why.
Representing Student Government, Eddie Mahoney, asked if the officers knew that the study was being
performed and was there any chance that it could have influenced their behavior. Chief Newton stated
that most of his officers did not know the study was happening, other than the command staff. Chief
Huff concurred.
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Another Senator for Student Government asked the consultant to speak as to how the methods were
developed specifically. He wondered if there was any sort of peer level consensus with the statistical
community on how to handle studies like this. Dr. Barnum provided some background as to how they
got started performing similar research between 2000 and 2010. Their methods have continued to
develop throughout the years. There is some agreement about using benchmarks, but also a lot of debate
about what method to use. They have had peer review of their studies and those have been published.
It was also asked how the consultant was selected. Chief Huff said that it was initiated by former Ames
Police Chief Chuck Cychosz. He received consensus from Iowa State to have a study done including
both Ames and ISU Police Departments. Dr. Barnum acknowledged that he had been contacted by
Chuck Cychosz. There are not many consultants who perform this type of study. Chief Newton said he
had had conversations with former Chief Cychosz. It would not make sense for ISU and the City of
Ames to hire separate consultants. The Student Government representative also asked if they are
thinking of involving the community in continuing a verification process. Chief Newton said both he
and Chief Huff are always happy to sit down with members of the community to have a deeper
discussion. He referenced the Ames Resident Police Advisory Committee, stating that it hopefully will
be up and running by April, and have that Committee help. Lastly, he asked about the data that was
found from stops being made at night. Mr. Barnum said that a lot of their observations occurred in the
evening and late-night hours.
Jennifer Seth, SUV Senator for Student Government, said she was curious about the benchmarks. She
asked why the decision was made not to use Census data or something else. Dr. Barnum answered that
they have compared using benchmarks to using Census data and found that the results were nearly
identical. They also found that their benchmarks were more conservative.
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC: There were no questions or comments
received from the public. There were no questions that were posted on-line.
MOTION ACCEPTING REPORT: Moved by Betcher, seconded by Junck, to accept the Report of
the Ames Police Department and ISU Police Department Traffic Stop Student Results, as submitted.
Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion declared carried unanimously.
DISPOSITIONS OF COMMUNICATIONS TO COUNCIL: None.
COUNCIL COMMENTS: Council Member Gartin thanked the Student Government members for
their participation in this meeting. He thought the opportunity to work together tonight was really
encouraging.
Mayor Haila mentioned that the application for Ames Resident Police Advisory Committee (ARPAC)
will be posted within the next week. They are looking for members representing a broad section of the
community. The application will be open for three of four weeks, interviews will then be conducted,
and his recommendations will be presented to the City Council.
The Mayor also thanked the Student Government for its participation. He reiterated that the Findings
of the Study will be posted on each agency’s website.
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ADJOURNMENT: Moved by Betcher, seconded by Junck, to adjourn the meeting at 7:51 PM.
Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion declared carried unanimously.
Dawson thanked all who attended the meeting.
A motion was made and seconded by members of the Student Government to adjourn the meeting.
There were no objections and the meeting adjourned at 7:51 PM.
________________________________________________________________________
Diane R. Voss, City Clerk John A. Haila, Mayor
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