(Radio Iowa) – The City of Ames is shutting down its police advisory committee in order to comply with a new state law. During a city council meeting this week, Police Chief Geoff Huff said members of the Ames Resident Police Advisory Committee — or ARPAC — learned about police procedures, offered suggestions and helped with community outreach events.

“A lot of what ARPAC has done is just bring that different perspective to the police department,” Chief Huff says. “We had very good discussions during all of our meetings. It’s a really good group of people, very committed to their community and to the police department.” Huff says there could be other ways to involve volunteers that would not involve a city commission.

ARPAC was formed in 2021 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and the Black Lives Matter movement. Ames City Council member Tim Gartin says communities should be able to “craft solutions that work best for them.”

“We wouldn’t begin to tell Davenport or Sioux City how to make such personal decisions for their communities. Those are things best left for them,” Gartin says, “but I would ask the legislature to leave us alone, to allow us to make decisions.” Other Iowa communities affected by the ban on police advisory boards include Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Iowa City, Dubuque and University Heights.

The new state law preventing cities with civil service commissions from having any type of citizen review board related to policing goes into effect August 16th.