Linh Ta

lta@dmreg.com

The Ankeny Police Department and Iowa State Patrol are refusing to release speed data and dash camera footage of an accident involving an Ankeny police officer, claiming the information was part of a law enforcement investigation and exempt from public disclosure.

Peter Roeder spent two months in a Des Moines hospital recovering from the injuries he received when his pickup truck was broadsided by a police car on June 1.

Officer Jeffrey Davis was driving north on South Ankeny Boulevard when he ran a red light at Southeast Third Street and struck Roeder's truck near the driver's side door, according to a State Patrol accident report. The collision redirected Roeder's white pickup onto the curb, where it struck a tree, smashing in the front grill and bringing it to a stop.

Roeder, 62, suffered a head injury, fractured shoulder and pelvis, collapsed lung and torn diaphragm. Eleven ribs on his left side were crushed.

He spent 20 days in the Iowa Methodist Medical Center intensive care unit before moving to the trauma unit. He was released July 30.

The Iowa State Patrol, which investigated the accident, found that Davis had his lights and siren activated when he ran the red light. Roeder failed to yield for an emergency vehicle, according to the report.

No charges were filed against either driver.

The State Patrol has refused to say how fast the officer was driving, and the Ankeny Police Department and State Patrol have both denied requests for dash camera footage from the officer's patrol car.

"They’re not required under law to be released," Ankeny Police Chief Gary Mikulec said.

Iowa law enforcement agencies have increasingly withheld information from reporters and the public, citing a controversial and relatively recent interpretation of a 45-year-old state law. The new interpretation holds that any document created or collected as part of an investigation can be considered confidential forever.

Mikulec referenced the investigative file exemption when denying The Des Moines Register's request for dash camera footage.

The Department of Public Safety has frequently cited that rule when denying records requests.

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A Register investigation in September showed the agency denied all or parts of 40 out of 59 record requests it received during the first six months of 2016. And of the 40 denials, 28 were based on the investigative file exemption — regardless of whether the case was closed or remained under investigation.

Iowa Department of Public Safety spokesman Alex Murphy told the Register at that time that the department’s general policy is to withhold information related to investigations unless it fits the "immediate facts and circumstances" of a case, which Iowa law generally requires to be released.

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Sgt. Nathan Ludwig, a spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol, echoed that statement when denying the Register's request to release the speed of the officer's vehicle, saying the vehicle's speed was not an "immediate fact and circumstance" of the accident, and therefore would not be released. The speed limit is 35 mph along that stretch of South Ankeny Boulevard.

The Ankeny police officer was responding to the pursuit of an ATV near Northeast 36th Street and Interstate Highway 35, about 3½ miles northeast of the crash site. Earlier in the day, an ATV driver damaged a corn field in a same area and ran from police when they began chasing him.

The idea that a public record reviewed or collected by an Iowa investigator can be considered forever confidential first arose in 2014, when the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation refused to release records in several cases in which people died after officers shocked them with 50,000-volt electrical weapons known as Tasers.

In another case that same year, Polk County District Court Judge Robert Blink ruled that the placement of a comma in the state's open records law means that records that were once part of a law enforcement agency's investigative files may remain confidential even after the investigation is concluded.

After the June crash, Roeder underwent multiple surgeries to rebuild his rib cage and diaphragm and treat internal injuries after the accident. He’s had two more surgeries since leaving the hospital for bowel obstructions caused by scar tissue.

"He obviously feels very lucky to be alive, but he still has nightmares about the accident and all the trauma his body’s been through," said Roeder's attorney, Kim Baer.

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He is undergoing physical therapy to recover from his injuries and has not been able to return to his part-time job at Hardee's, Baer said. He receives disability benefits.

Davis sustained an injury to his leg and ankle in the accident. He was released from the hospital the same day.

Roeder denied an interview request for this article. His family issued a statement saying: "We hope that the Ankeny Police Department will take steps to ensure that this type of accident does not occur again in the future."

The suspect in the ATV chase was apprehended by Ankeny police officers after a foot chase.

Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect the accurate direction the police officer was driving at the time of the accident.