Senator Joni Ernst (R) held a law enforcement roundtable discussion with several area officers in Washington Thursday.

Agencies including the Washington, Mahaska, Lee, Henry, and Johnson county sheriff’s offices, Iowa State Patrol, and Washington, Columbus Junction, and Iowa City police departments attended the event held at the Washington County Communications Center. While the discussion wasn’t open to the media, Senator Ernst told KCII afterwards that the conversation covered several topics including qualified immunity, “This is an issue that has come up obviously since the killing of George Floyd, and many Democrats have wanted to see this change and take away that immunity from our law enforcement officials. But there’s a misconception out there that they’re protected no matter what they do and that is wrong, that is false information that’s been pushed out there. If we have law enforcement officials that go too far and maybe they harm somebody maliciously they’re not covered by qualified immunity.”

Ernst’s visit occurred as ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for charges of second degree murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. Mental health and a lack of providers to address those situations rather than law enforcement was also discussed at the roundtable. Ernst also visited Wapello for a solar project ribbon cutting today as part of her 99-county tour.