Ankeny police won't release video of 2 crashes blamed on officers. They may be violating Iowa's open-records law

Lee Rood | The Des Moines Register

On July 5, two cars sat at an Ankeny intersection waiting for a car in front of them to turn left.

Suddenly, a driver rear-ended one of the vehicles, which then slammed into the other car that had a 2-year-old in the back seat.

The driver who triggered the crash was Charles Webster, a 24-year-old Ankeny police officer with one year on the force, who admitted to an investigator he looked down before the crash.

Webster also reportedly told the two other drivers at the scene he was looking at the computer inside his squad car.

A crash report completed afterward for the Iowa Department of Transportation says Webster “contributed to the incident by failing to stop in an assured clear distance.”

But Webster was never given a citation for the crash, even though distracted driving is a crime in Iowa.

Now, Mindy Ponsetto-Clift — the wife of Ryan Clift, who was hit with a toddler in tow — says the city’s insurance adjuster isn’t treating her fairly in negotiations over damage to her 2008 Honda Accord.

Webster’s speed, as well as what distracted him, likely would be made more clear by video from the dash and body cameras that are now standard in many urban police departments.

But on Wednesday, Capt. Makai Echer, Ankeny’s interim police chief, declined a request from Reader's Watchdog to release that video, saying it's a confidential personnel matter.

It's not the first time the department has chosen to withhold video in a crash blamed on an officer.

In 2016, Ankeny police and the Iowa State Patrol refused to release speed data and dash-camera footage after an accident involving another officer. In that case, they said the video was part of a law enforcement investigation.

The officer responsible for the June 1, 2016, crash was never cited. Crash victim Peter Roeder spent two months in a Des Moines hospital recovering from injuries he received after Officer Jeffrey Davis broadsided his pickup truck.

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

Video sometimes released, sometimes not

Iowa’s open-records law makes all government records accessible to the public with several limited exceptions. That includes police dashboard and body-camera footage.

That footage can be kept confidential if its release would jeopardize a criminal investigation or someone’s safety.

There’s no provision in Iowa code, however, that allows police officials to withhold video footage in a personnel matter. Video may be used in such matters, but it typically is not considered part of an individual's confidential work history.

In the past five years, law enforcement, media, civil liberties organizations and victims’ rights groups have debated when police footage should be released.

In police shootings, some departments have released video once criminal or internal investigations are complete; others have refused to do so.

Randy Evans, executive director of Iowa’s Freedom of Information Council, said the interim chief’s refusal to release the video “certainly seems to be another example where the public records law is not serving the purpose for which it was created.”

Evans said ordinary citizens don’t have the option of handling driving infractions as confidential personnel matters, assuring their driving records aren’t affected.

Officers also get to review video in incidents that are disputed and adjust their accounts of what happened, while citizens often are told to wait until after an investigation concludes to see footage.

Preventing the public from seeing the video doesn’t allow citizens to evaluate decisions made by the officer or the chief, Evans said.

“Keeping it secret gives rise to concerns on the part of the public that the officer is receiving preferential treatment,” he said.

Police crashes aren't unusual

Crashes involving police vehicles are commonplace.

A study released this spring from the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health found Iowa police cars were involved in 2,406 crashes from 2005 to 2013. Of those, 879 happened with lights flashing and sirens sounding.

Emergency or no, officers have communications technology, laptops, texts and cameras to distract them when on duty.

Ponsetto-Clift said she tried to contact Capt. Echer about what she sees as the city’s inadequate response to the accident, but Echer didn’t call her back.

Echer has not said whether Webster was disciplined.

Ponsetto-Clift said she believes the $5,100 the city’s insurance adjuster offered for damage to her 2007 Honda Accord was not enough. A lawyer suggested much more: $12,000.

She said Aaron Scharmota of Iowa Communities Assurance Pool was poised early on to total her 2007 Accord and offer her about $5,100 in a settlement.

But the Kelley Blue Book value was $6,500 to 9,500, depending on the condition and miles, so she wouldn't agree.

Two estimates to repair the car — but not total it — came in at around $4,800 and $4,500.

After Ponsetto-Clift rejected the $5,100 offer, the adjuster offered $5,600.

Ponsetto-Clift, 32, said she told him on Aug. 1 she would accept the $5,600 if she could keep the car and get it fixed. She says he said no.

“I said that’s not fair,” she said.

The mother said she won’t find a comparable used car for $5,100. And with the baby and a recent house purchase, she and her husband cannot afford to have a car payment, too.

“This wasn’t even our fault. He failed to look up,” she said. “I’m not saying they should pay for a new car. But that’s not going to put us in the same position with $5,000.”

Effort for more transparency continues

Drivers who use hand-held devices while driving are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves or others.

Ten percent of fatal crashes, 15 percent of injury crashes, and 14 percent of all police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2015 were reported as distraction-affected crashes, according to Iowa’s Department of Public Safety.

Under the state’s 1-year-old distracted driving law, motorists who use a cell phone or portable electronic devices can be cited and fined, with court costs of up to $100. (Unless the motor vehicle is stopped and off the traveled portion of the roadway.)

A driver using a cell phone who kills someone and is found to have been driving recklessly can face 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

But Iowa law allows police to read texts while performing official duties.

In 2016, open-government advocates lobbied state leaders to provide more transparency in incidents involving the police.

Senate Study Bill 3088 would have required police to release information once a case is closed if it doesn’t endanger a person’s life. It also would have launched a study into the use, storage, public inspection and confidentiality of body-camera video.

The legislation was drafted after Burlington police refused to release video in the death of a 34-year-old mother, Autumn Steele, who was accidentally shot and killed by a Burlington police officer.

(A wrongful death lawsuit was brought by Steele's family and estate, and settled for an undisclosed amount this summer.)

The study bill died.

Evans said representatives from different groups are engaged in new discussions this year, trying to reach a compromise on similar legislation for the 2018 session.

In the meantime, Ponsetto-Clift awaits a compromise that seems fair.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com, 515-284-8549, on Twitter @leerood, or at facebook.com/readerswatchdog.