2023 Year in Review
In 2023, Just Voices continued to work hard towards reform of policing in Des Moines. We used our mission as our guide and did plenty of education, advocacy, and collaboration to bring about real change. Our progress in seeing increased accountability and transparency, improved data collection, and a decrease in racially-disparate policing has been slow but steady. In 2024, we will continue to press on, working with the community, and keeping our hope and determination alive.
2023 Actions in Review Just Voices Iowa
2022 Was a Good Year
In 2022, Just Voices was successful in many ways, although much work remains to see an end to racially-biased policing in Des Moines. We were excited to receive a 3-year grant from Borealis Foundation’s Communities Transforming Policing Fund (CTPF) . And thankfully, we also recruited more volunteers to help us with our research efforts as we pursue racial justice in policing.
Des Moines city leadership took some promising steps to study policing improvements with pressure by Just Voices and others in the activist community. They hired 21st Century Policing to do an independent, in-depth review of the DMPD’s policies, practices, data, training, and culture. Their findings are expected in mid-2023.
Read our report “2022 Actions In Review” for a good overview of what was done. NOTE: We worked with independent experts at Civilytics to analyze the Des Moines Police Department’s budget and provide their insights on it. Their analysis is also found at the end of this report.