Open investigation records

We understand the need for law enforcement agencies to hold their cards close to the vest during an ongoing criminal investigation. There can be friction between the news media's push to report and law enforcement's desire to control information, but both sides have the same goal: finding out what really happened.

What's far more difficult to understand is the impulse to keep investigative records secret even after an investigation has concluded, to deny the public the opportunity to know what really happened. But, apparently, that's what Iowa's current law allows. Just last year, Polk County District Court Judge Robert Blink ruled that a comma within the open records statute must be interpreted to allow investigative records to be kept secret indefinitely, long after investigations are finished.

That brings us to the case of Autumn Steele, who was accidentally shot dead by a Burlington police officer who says he intended to shoot her aggressive dog. The officer, Jesse Hill, was not charged with a crime, or disciplined, and is back on the force.

But Steele's family and the Burlington Hawk Eye newspaper have been denied access to records generated by a probe conducted by the state Division of Criminal Investigation.

The family and newspaper have taken their demands for transparency to the Iowa Public Information Board. But as Erin Jordan reports today, the board's director, Charlie Smithson, citing Blink's interpretation, is recommending the complaints be dismissed. The IPIB previously urged the Iowa Legislature to change the law, but lawmakers took no action.

Allowing police and prosecutors to keep records secret denies Iowans the ability to hold public officials accountable for their actions. That's especially true in cases such as the Burlington incident, where charges are not filed and the investigative record is not detailed in court during a criminal trial. Steele's family, the community and Iowans deserve to know what the investigation found.

These are public agencies with a great deal of power and broad authority. The notion of allowing them to seal all records detailing their use of that power and authority should trouble every Iowan. A comma shouldn't stand between Iowans and the ability to fully understand governmental decisions made on their behalf.

Iowans deserve to know. And state lawmakers should change the law.

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