The Iowa Senate recently passed a bill that one lawmaker is calling it the “Back the Blue” bill.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says the legislation is in response to the situations where protests happened across the country and in Iowa, which was sparked from the death of George Floyd, when he died being arrested by a former Minnespolis Police Officer. Green points out lawmakers wanted to walk the fine line of what should be allowed during a protest.

“We want to protect people’s rights to protest and to speak their mind, but that should never include attacking police or falsely accusing police.

Green says part of the bill supports police departments with qualified immunity, which gives added protection to officers when they respond to a protest. He notes another major part of the bill penalizes cities that defund a police department. Green states this was in direct response to what the City of Minneapolis did after Floyd’s death to take away police funding and reduce its police protection.

“This puts perimeters around how cities may lessen their police budgets. It has to be for defined purposes or in direct proportion to the rest of their budgets. So if they (cities) decrease their police budget by five-percent, then the rest of the budget of the city needs to reflect that as well.”

Green says no cities in Iowa are currently defunding police departments. He adds that the Iowa Department of Management is finalizing the regulations of the bill.