A Fall Day
On October 27, 2018, the sun shone brightly and the temperature climbed to almost 70 degrees, a beautiful fall day in Des Moines. Shoppers at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers’ Market purchased bushels of apples and brightly colored pumpkins while navigating baby strollers and dogs tugging on leashes.
Brian Bell, a tall, lean college student at Iowa Central Community College, wasn’t listening to the street corner musicians. He wasn’t waiting in line for a breakfast burrito. And he wasn’t shopping for handmade art. Instead this young man, who had gone off his medication for bipolar disorder, would land in the Polk County Jail before noon.
But before his arrest, Bell traveled from the campus of Grandview University to downtown Des Moines in a span of a few hours and drew the attention of community members and the police along the way.
The Calls
Dispatch Call:
“There’s a Black male at the bus stop outside Grandview College acting strange.”
911 Call:
“This is Casey’s General Store on 3501 E. Euclid. I have a gentleman in his 20s, African American, has some long dreads. He’s been here about 20 minutes. He’s incoherent. He’s talking and walking around. I think he’s high on something. He won’t answer any questions. We offered him milk if he’s high on something. He needs to go. So if you could just send somebody.”
Officer Call:
“The same guy from the east side. He’s very animated. Animated. Currently headed toward downtown. You’re probably going to get other calls, but he’s no problem.”
911 Call:
Caller: I’m calling at 3rd and Park, the Events Center. Can we have an officer over here? We have a wrestling tournament going on today, and we have someone here who says he has a gun.
Dispatcher: Is he outside?
Caller: Yes, he’s outside on Center Street and 3rd.
Dispatcher: What does he look like?
Caller: They said he is a Black male with dreads.
Dispatcher: He said he had a gun? Who did he tell that to?
Caller: One of the workers.
Dispatcher: But no one saw it, right?
Caller: Correct.
Dispatch Call:
“Your male has now taken off and is running southbound. I don’t know if it’s because he saw you. I’d go in and try to talk to him.
911 Call:
“There’s a guy outside Buzzard Billys and it looks like he has a gun. He’s yelling at people.”
Officer: “Did you see the gun?”
Caller: “No I didn’t.”
Officer: “What makes you think he has a gun?”
Caller: “He’s sticking his hand down his pants and yelling at people.”
Dispatch call to off-duty patrols at the Farmers’ Market:
Dispatch: “We’ve had calls on a gentleman. He’s kind of disruptive. He’s mental. Hold on, let me get you the description. Black male. Has dreads. He’s wearing a striped hoodie jacket and camo pants. Can be aggressive. Kind of verbal and animated.”
Off-duty patrol: “Have we already had contact with him?”
Dispatcher: “Yes. Several times.”
Off-duty patrol: “Ok, I guess I’ll go clean it up.”
Clean Up
What these calls don’t capture is a more complex picture of Brian Bell, the Brian Bell who anchored the 4X800m victory at the National Junior College Athletic Association for Iowa Central College. The Brian Bell whose mother suffered from mental illness. The Brian Bell who had been in and out of foster care. The Brian Bell who wrote rap lyrics and poetry. The Brian Bell who claimed he had been robbed by his teammates and left homeless by a coach who had taken him in.
The details above come from a story posts on Letsrun.com and Dyestat.com that featured a story about Bell in June of 2015 entitled “God Speed: The Brian Bell Story, Part 1” after Bell ran in five races at the Ohio Division II state championship track meet. Thinking he had merely a cold, Bell ran in five races, winning the 800 meters title and running on the 4×400 relay that placed third, helping his team win the team championship. After the competition, Bell was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.
It isn’t feasible to always gain a more complete picture of a person in a potentially volatile situation. But Brian Bell is a reminder that “cleaning up” a situation can mean narrowing a view of a person’s humanity. That day at the Downtown Farmers’ Market in October, the portrait that emerged of Bell was of a hostile Black man.
Witnesses reported to Robinson and House, the two off duty officers working the Downtown Farmers’ Market, that Bell had been trying to pick fights with several people, including a man in a wheelchair.
From the Incident Report: “I could see the suspect sitting on the west retaining wall next to HyVee. There were several people sitting near him. I made the decision that we needed to place him in custody, due to his aggressive nature and the thousands of children, adults, and elderly people attending the market.”
In the bodycam video, Farmers’ Market shoppers can be seen passing by sipping coffee and carrying purchases. There is no sense of fear or lack of safety due to Bell’s presence. A street musician plays tunes in the background.
The Arrest
When Robinson and House approached Bell, they helped him to his feet and attempted to place handcuffs on him, but the oversized sweatshirt made it challenging to secure the handcuffs. Bell began to struggle and pull away. In an attempt to subdue him, the officers tripped Bell, and he landed on his back, then flipped over on his stomach. He hit his head, causing a gash over his right eye.
House wrote in the Incident Investigation Report, “I am not sure how it occurred. If he hit his head on the sidewalk or on the retaining wall. I could see blood splattering on the sidewalk.”
One of the off duty officers laid across Bell’s back and sprayed pepper spray in Bell’s face. Bell can be heard on the videocam recording crying out in pain. When the pepper spray didn’t subdue Bell, the officer tased him. Bell fell to the ground, and the officers handcuffed him.
In the video footage, witnesses can be heard screaming, “He’s down! Stop! Will you stop tasing him?! He’s down!” The officer responded, “If he’d get his hands behind his back, we’d stop.”
Watch video from Des Moines Register article (Oct 14 2020).
In an interview with TV-8 News. Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said, “When people resist arrest, sometimes it’s not pretty to watch. People just don’t seem to understand how difficult it is to take someone into custody who is bound and determined not to be taken into custody.”
Bell told the arresting officers that he was bipolar and off his meds.
After Bell was arrested, the bodycam video records a phone conversation one of the arresting officers had with the officer who spoke to Bell at the bus stop by Grandview University:
“I was called out to Grandview to meet with security. I met with him (Bell). He was sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. He’s bi-polar. He didn’t want any mobile crisis help. Didn’t want hospitalization. I had a conversation with him and offered help. He wasn’t suicidal, wasn’t homicidal, wasn’t causing a scene, wasn’t being disorderly. Having some mental issue when I dealt with him. He was having a general conversation with another man waiting at the bus stop.”
The Victim
The Incident Investigation Report lists the “Victim” as “Society/Public.” But no one in society had been harmed by Bell that day. The officer who spoke to Bell at the bus stop by Grandview described Bell as “no problem.”
For Brian Bell, the dollar amount for the arrest totaled $135 for “Room and Board fees” for two days in jail for pleading guilty to disorderly Conduct–Fighting or Violent Behavior–and Interference with Official Acts. He also paid $600 for a Cash Appeal Bond.
Bell paid his bills, but there was still a cost to the criminal charge. Bell no longer lives in Des Moines and could not be reached to provide a comment on this article.
Not All Crises Need a Police Response
In July of 2022, almost four years after the Bell arrest, the City of Des Moines’ Crisis Advocacy Response Effort (CARE) program expanded to better serve the emergency mental health needs in the community. A collaboration between the Des Moines Police Department and the Broadlawns Medical Center provides clinical professionals within the emergency dispatch center, aiming for 24/7 response to mental health calls.
A clinically trained professional can assist dispatch staff to determine the level of response that is needed. If the situation does not require a response from officers, a team of mental health professionals will be sent out to respond to the person in need of assistance.
When someone dials 911 now, the response to the call includes this question: “Do you want Police, Fire, EMS or Mental Health Services?” The CARE Program responded to 1,530 calls in its first year of implementation that, in the past, would have prompted an unnecessary police response.
“Not all crises need a police response,” Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert said. “The CARE program gives our department a tool that helps our residents and provides an appropriate response to meet people where they are when they’re in crisis.”
The different protocols now in place provide the police with a more specified level of care. CARE team members are embedded in the Des Moines Police Dispatch Center to triage calls and also provide field responses to certain calls without police assistance. When the first call came in about Brian Bell at the Grandview bus stop, and the police learned he was bipolar and off his medication, the response might have been very different with the CARE team in place.
Since Bell’s Arrest
Recommendations from the 21st Century Policing Solutions (21CP) Report on policing encouraged the Des Moines Police Department to do more to track and analyze the calls made to the Mobile Health Crisis Team or Crisis Advocacy Response Effort program. The report recommends making this data available within the police department and to the community.
Additionally the 21CP Report recommends the launching of a “Behavior and Mental Health Work Group” that would include MCRT and CARE officers and clinicians, dispatchers and police officers with mental health expertise, as well as representatives from nonprofits, health care providers and youth workers.
Read the 21CP Report here.
About Arresting Officer Garth House
The arresting officer, Garth House, is one of the Des Moines Police Department officers who arrests Blacks in disproportionate numbers. According to the analysis done by Just Voices as a part of the racial profiling project, 20% of his arrests are of Black people. Eleven percent of the population in Des Moines is Black.