Iowa Bill could keep some 911 recordings secret

A bill that may go before the full Iowa Senate next week would allow law enforcement agencies to keep secret 911 recordings reporting injuries or medical issues.

Bill sponsor Rep. Dean Fisher, R-Montour, said House File 571 would require law enforcement agencies to edit medical information out of 911 recordings or provide redacted transcripts when the public requests the recordings, now considered public records under Iowa law.

'If I'm laying on the floor with a heart attack and my wife calls 911,” Fisher said Friday, 'does the public need to know that? No.”

However, Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, voted against the bill Thursday because he fears it could be more broadly applied to keep secret all 911 recordings, body camera videos and police logs - records Danielson thinks provide police accountability to the public.

'We should be opening up our decision-making process,” said Danielson, a firefighter.

The bill would exempt from Iowa's open records law medical records including 'information contained in audio or video call recording, including but not limited to, an audio or video 911 recording, relating to the injury or medical condition of a person who is the subject of the call.”

All 911 recordings concerning juveniles also would be confidential under the proposal.

Fisher said he proposed the bill after a request by the Tama County Emergency Management Agency.

The request likely was spurred by 911 recordings the Associated Press obtained last year about accidental shootings, Fisher said. One case involved the 2015 death of Emma Redlinger, a 14-year-old shot inadvertently by a classmate inside a Vinton home. Another case reported by the AP involved a 12-year-old girl fatally shot in a 2014 hunting accident near Traer.

Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, said those news reports shined light on the dangers of firearms access.

Evans shares Danielson's concern that HF 571 could lead to shielding of many different types of police records that let the public decide whether police acted legally or ethically.

'Sealing off those records will make it ever more difficult to hold public officials accountable,” he said.

The question of whether Iowa police may keep body camera video secret in closed cases already is being tested.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Burlington Police Department have refused to release body camera video and other investigative records from a 2015 officer-involved shooting that left a 34-year-old Burlington mom dead.

The Iowa Public Information Board, which enforces public records and meetings laws, has filed a case against the agencies and a hearing will be held later this month.

The Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association and Iowa Public Safety were registered Friday as being undecided about the 911 call legislation, which already has passed the full House and made it through a Senate committee. A final vote could happen as soon as next week.

l Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com