Today we are thrilled to announce that we're giving Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) our Partners in Liberty award.

Iowa CCI is a powerful force working on critical civil liberties issues in Iowa. Here's the important work we're recognizing from the organization this year:

  • It's worked tirelessly and for years for racial justice. That includes advocating for anti-racial profiling city ordinances and statewide legislation.

  • It's a vocal opponent of police use of force and has long advocated for a citizens review board.

  • Most recently, Iowa CCI has been an important client in the ACLU of Iowa's Ag Gag 1.0 and Ag Gag 2.0 lawsuits to protect the free speech rights of advocates and investigators.

  • It protects immigrants from wage theft and worker safety violations.

  • It does an unparalleled job of engaging and highlighting the stories of impacted individuals and communities. That includes sharing Des Moines Police body camera and dash camera video that corroborated important details of the racial profiling incident last July of two young Black men who were stopped while driving. Those officers refused to tell the driver why he was stopped, searched, handcuffed, and put into a squad car, even after they were released without any charges filed.

  • It elevated the story of a Black campaign worker who was questioned by West Des Moines Police simply for walking around in a white neighborhood.

Iowa CCI will receive the Partners in Liberty award at the ACLU of Iowa’s Bill of Rights Brunch on Saturday, October 12, at the downtown Des Moines Hilton.