The Iowa Public Information Board will hire an outside prosecutor to handle a case against state law enforcement agencies refusing to release a police body camera video of the fatal shooting of a Burlington woman.
The case against the Burlington Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation will likely take more time than the board’s executive director, Charlie Smithson, can devote to one complaint, he told the board Thursday.
“It removes any potential conflicts or even a cloud of doubt if an outside prosecutor handles this matter,” Smithson told The Gazette in an email this week.
“In addition, given the workload of the Board and the amount of time and effort that will need to be put into this litigation, it makes sense for me to focus on other areas while an outside prosecutor tackles this project.”
Smithson has talked with the state’s Executive Council about paying for the outside hire and the time of an administrative law judge to hear the case, he said.
Board members have twice gone against staff advice that they dismiss complaints from people who want to see the full video of the Jan. 6, 2015, shooting, in which Burlington police Officer Jesse Hill accidentally killed Autumn Steele when he was trying to shoot her attacking dog.
Burlington police and the DCI so far have released only 12 seconds of Hill’s body camera recording.
Smithson and board Deputy Director Margaret Johnson recommended dismissal of complaints from Steele’s family and the Burlington Hawk Eye newspaper on grounds that Iowa’s Open Records law appears to allow police to keep secret investigative reports, even after investigations are closed.
Board staff and other open-government advocates have pushed to tweak the law to require agencies to release more records, but proposed changes did not pass the Iowa Legislature last year.
Board members argued last month the law was written before body cameras were in use and the video shouldn’t necessarily be lumped with other records that may be kept secret.
The board, which has authority to levy civil fines of up to $2,500 for a knowing violation of Iowa’s Open Records or Open Meetings laws, has charged only one person since the group started accepting complaints in 2013. Most cases are handled with informal resolution.
The board fined former Washington County Attorney Larry Brock $1,000 in October 2014 for knowingly breaking Iowa’s open records law by failing to provide public documents for three months.
http://www.thegazette.com/outside-p...-case-for-state-public-records-board-20160122
The case against the Burlington Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation will likely take more time than the board’s executive director, Charlie Smithson, can devote to one complaint, he told the board Thursday.
“It removes any potential conflicts or even a cloud of doubt if an outside prosecutor handles this matter,” Smithson told The Gazette in an email this week.
“In addition, given the workload of the Board and the amount of time and effort that will need to be put into this litigation, it makes sense for me to focus on other areas while an outside prosecutor tackles this project.”
Smithson has talked with the state’s Executive Council about paying for the outside hire and the time of an administrative law judge to hear the case, he said.
Board members have twice gone against staff advice that they dismiss complaints from people who want to see the full video of the Jan. 6, 2015, shooting, in which Burlington police Officer Jesse Hill accidentally killed Autumn Steele when he was trying to shoot her attacking dog.
Burlington police and the DCI so far have released only 12 seconds of Hill’s body camera recording.
Smithson and board Deputy Director Margaret Johnson recommended dismissal of complaints from Steele’s family and the Burlington Hawk Eye newspaper on grounds that Iowa’s Open Records law appears to allow police to keep secret investigative reports, even after investigations are closed.
Board staff and other open-government advocates have pushed to tweak the law to require agencies to release more records, but proposed changes did not pass the Iowa Legislature last year.
Board members argued last month the law was written before body cameras were in use and the video shouldn’t necessarily be lumped with other records that may be kept secret.
The board, which has authority to levy civil fines of up to $2,500 for a knowing violation of Iowa’s Open Records or Open Meetings laws, has charged only one person since the group started accepting complaints in 2013. Most cases are handled with informal resolution.
The board fined former Washington County Attorney Larry Brock $1,000 in October 2014 for knowingly breaking Iowa’s open records law by failing to provide public documents for three months.
http://www.thegazette.com/outside-p...-case-for-state-public-records-board-20160122
