Six days into texting law, zero warnings written by seven agencies

Six days into the new state texting law and seven Eastern Iowa police departments are reporting zero written citations so far.

Iowa City Police spokesperson Sgt. Denise Brotherton said the law is at the educational stage and only warnings will be issued instead of actual citations.

“At this point I do not have any documentation of warnings issued for texting,” she said.

Brotherton also said an individual must be pulled over for violating a traffic law other than texting to receive the warning.

Police departments in Iowa City, Coralville, Cedar Rapids, Marion, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Dubuque all reported zero written warnings so far.

Although officers across all seven cities said just because there are no documented written warnings doesn't mean officers haven't issued verbal warnings.

Cedar Rapids Police spokesperson Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said her department doesn't issue written warning citations so Cedar Rapids drivers may not see any written enforcement of the new law for another year - since written and verbal warnings are the only form of enforcement currently.

Multiple calls to an Iowa State Patrol spokesperson for their records remained unanswered and were not returned Tuesday.