Dubuque Times

Dubuque Police Chief Mark Dalsing is in favor of the new police reform package Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law but said he wished more members of law enforcement were asked for their input before the terms of the final law were decided upon.

“We were not asked for a lot of input in this,” Dalsing said to KCRG. “There were some folks behind the scenes who said, ‘This is what’s going to happen.’”

One of the measures includes the mandate that the police academy provides equity training. Dalsing said that is a big request of a small department, one that would require a small staff to train divisions in 99 counties. 

Several years ago, the academy was in charge of providing mental health curriculum and was quickly overwhelmed.

“It is one of those parts where the intention was good on behalf of the state, but they really did not think a lot of these extra steps and certainly did not get input from local agencies,” Dalsing said.

Dalsing said the new law's impact on the Dubuque Police Department will be minimal.

“The City of Dubuque is always going to be progressive and we are going to be ahead of the curve,” Dalsing said. “We are going to be meeting with the folks in our community and see what they need as change.”