DES MOINES, Iowa — It has been almost four years since the streets of Des Moines were filled with protestors advocating for equality in policing after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
People from all over Iowa came to the capitol city to voice concerns about policing within the state.
Local 5 sat down with Just Voices Iowa, an organization which conducted a study on the performance of the Des Moines Police Department during those protests and how protestors' experiences have affected them.
Within the year of 2020, advocacy on police reform was heightened all across the country, with protests in Des Moines resulting in several arrests, injuries and criticism about DMPD's response.
Lori Young and her team at Just Voices Iowa has done over two years worth of research on the protests, designing "The People's History" project.
"We were really able to find out is: How did Des Moines police department perform? What did people experience? Was the reaction of the Des Moines Police appropriate to the level of violence, if there was violence?" Young said.
The study's purpose is to document history and showcase what they call unjust policing practices. Young noted the data they collected shows there were more than 40 protest that summer and 208 people were arrested with offenses ranging from disorderly conduct to failure to disperse.
"We looked at what were the outcome of all these arrests, in cases against innocent protesters. Most of them, I would say 95%, were dismissed or found not guilty," Young said. "More importantly, to collect the stories of people that were at the protests, what did they experience."
The collection of essays features stories from a wide range of protestors of all genders and races sharing mental and physical trauma from DMPD interactions. Young shared the story of a man who traveled from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and was caught up in the protests.
"He comes all the way to Des Moines, ends up at a protest where the police reaction, they showed up in military gear, they had tear gas, and they did something called kettling. That's where you block all areas of escape. So, they are telling people to disperse, but then they don't give them a way to get out.," Young told Local 5.
Young shared that, to this day, the man has greatly suffered from the outcome of that protest.
"He was arrested, he was hit with a baton on the side of his face on his body. He gave us pictures of his injuries. After that, he was released," Young said. "It was very traumatic to be arrested for doing nothing. To try to escape like they asked him to do, he suffered a lot of mental trauma."
Local 5 reached out to DMPD for an interview on the findings of this study. The department said, due to pending litigation, they are unable to participate or comment on the research.
Young hopes, in the future, the city and police department work with her to compile this data, as they have struggled to get reports from the department on use of force since 2020.
"We wanted to see the actual reports, each one. However, we had to sue the City of Des Moines for that information. The judge ruled in our favor and said to the Des Moines police, you have to give them the 387 individual use of force reports," she said. "Now, the city is appealing that decision. So, we have yet to receive those."
Just Voices Iowa told Local 5 they are not anti-police, but hope to call on the city and DMPD to work with them moving forward. This is the organization's first volume of this publication, and it hopes to publish more in the future.
You can read the entire publication at this link.