Articles Tagged: Iowa Department of Public Safety

The former sheriff’s deputy deputy allegedly asked to see a woman’s breasts during a traffic stop and implied he wouldn’t give her a ticket if she agreed

Requests for critical stress management debriefings tripled in 2021, Director Stephan Bayens said Wednesday.

The men were four of 35 Iowans honored for courageous responses during incidents in 2020 and 2021. The list includes 22 civilians and 13 first responders.

While some lawmakers have resisted the prohibition on the grounds it’s a personal freedom issue, Stephan Bayens, commissioner of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said public safety benefits trump the individual rights concern.

Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens says: “We just can’t continue to expect our folks to just bury the hurt and the trauma and the stress that they see every day and just go about their day and be good moms and dads or husbands or daughters or whatever it is. ”

Two Jones County deputies and three Anamosa police officers are now on paid administrative leave.

State officials reported last month that law officers had written about 1,500 citations for drivers exceeding 100 mph on Iowa highways since the pandemic began influencing driving behaviors.