Presidents Message
Hello everyone. I’d like to first recognize and thank Chief Dave Lorenzen for his unwavering service as the IPOA President for the last 6 years. Dave has been a great representative of the IPOA. His ability as an intermediary between police agencies, large and small, legislators, and the public in general to address current or growing issues in public safety has been second to none. Chief Lorenzen will remain on the IPOA Board of Directors and serve as Past-President for a term as we move forward.
The reins were passed to me at the Feb 2019 IPOA board meeting to become the new President of the IPOA. Police Chief Marty Duffus (Osceola PD) has agreed to become the Vice-President of the IPOA Board. The Board of Directors is committed to serving our diverse membership. The neat thing about the IPOA is the diverse perspective we bring to the table. Our members, active and retired, come from federal, state, municipal, county, and railroad organizations that work in Iowa. Member agencies can range in size from one officer to several hundred peace officers in size. Our members may also belong to other Iowa and national police associations, beside the IPOA, as well. This multi-faceted network of peace officers across Iowa continues to be our strength.
We are looking for your input and feedback. How can you help? Every December, the IPOA Board meets with other public safety associations to collectively agree on 4 or 5 joint public safety resolutions for the upcoming legislative session. If you know of legislative issues for our membership that need to be addressed, please let us know.
Each year, we also plan a training conference. We try to make the conference reasonably-priced, easy to get to, and interesting and practical to our members. Are there training topics or presenters that you would like to see at this conference? Is there a certain Iowa location you would like the conference at? We value your input. We are starting to look at locations around central Iowa for the 2020 conference. Midwest Counterdrug Training Center (MCTC) continues to be an excellent training and logistical partner with the IPOA. Don’t forget to look at MCTC’s website year-round to see what classes are being offered.
We also welcome members to submit written articles for our IPOA magazine that may benefit the general membership. These articles may be written to inform the membership about your agency, or highlight a recent success from your agency. Your agency’s success story could be relevant to other member agencies struggling with the same issue. Maybe, you would like to be a guest-contributor and write an article about a new product, legal decision, or procedure of interest. As long as the articles are professional in-tone and would be of interest to our members, feel free to submit articles for consideration for upcoming magazines. We also have various committees from time to time that may be in need of member participation. Please reach out to us if interested.
President Captain Mike McKelvey
Mason City Police Department
