The Iowa Supreme Court says the Des Moines Police Department must turn over information on the use of force by officers.
Harvey Harrison, the founder of the non-profit group Just Voices, filed an open records request for the Des Moines Department’s 2020 use of force reports. Harrison said the group was trying to evaluate how the department overall uses physical and deadly force against residents, and their response to the George Floyd protests.
The City of Des Moines argued that the reports are personnel records exempt from the open records law. The Supreme Court ruled the deadly force reports detail the facts of what happened, not evaluations of employees, and should be released.