An African-American campaign worker canvassing in West Des Moines for U.S. Rep. David Young was arrested last month after he refused to identify himself or answer questions from officers who had received a complaint about door-to-door soliciting.

The group Citizens for Community Improvement released video Monday of the Oct. 29 arrest of Keilon Hill of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and cited the incident as another recent example of racial profiling by metro-area police. The video was shot by Hill.

West Des Moines Police say they’ve conducted a review following a complaint about the incident and determined that police acted appropriately.

A key question is whether the arresting officers had the authority — or the responsibility — to require Hill to identify himself, a point of law sometimes referenced as the "reasonable suspicion standard." It generally requires that officers have a reasonable suspicion before they stop a person.

“It’s part of police work,” West Des Moines Police Sgt. Dan Wade said. “If we have the potential that something illegal is happening, we want to find out what’s going on so officers can determine if there has been a crime or will be a crime.”

West Des Moines Police Officer Clint Ray can be heard on the video explaining to Hill, the political canvasser, that officers were responding to a call about soliciting from a resident about a suspicious person.

Hill — who is carrying campaign materials — can be heard telling Ray that he’s not selling anything or offering any service. Hill declines to stop to answer questions multiple times after Ray tells him he’s not free to go because of an ongoing investigation.

Hill, 24, can be heard uttering profanity toward Ray. An Oct. 29 police report states that he called the officer “a white cracker ass.”

“I work for somebody who will get on your mother-f------ ass,” Hill says on the video just moments before he is arrested on a charge of harassment of a public official, which makes it a simple misdemeanor to willfully prevent an officer from performing his or her job.

Hill said he was in Iowa working for a firm contracted by “Defending Main Street,” a conservative Republican political action committee based in Washington, D.C., that spent at least $4 million in the 2018 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org.

The video showed that, as Hill was being handcuffed, he told the officer he was “a real fool.”

Hill said Monday he would have acted differently had the officers treated him more respectfully. He said he felt compelled to share his experience to help end profiling.

“It’s one of those things where it’s simply the principle,” Hill said. “Had they given a legitimate reason as to why I needed to be identified, then, by all means, here’s all of my information.”

CCI has, in recent months, spotlighted multiple cases it believes show a pattern of racial profiling by area police.

It was not reasonable to believe Hill was involved in a crime and, therefore, the officers should have refrained from detaining him, said Bridget Fagan-Reidburn, a CCI organizer.

She noted that Hill was followed by police in Urbandale the day following his arrest and said she was aware of another situation involving a separate black canvasser who experienced similar problems.

“This doesn’t happen with white people,” Fagan-Reidburn said, noting her group has been involved with multiple political canvassing efforts for years. “That’s just how it is. I have not heard of a white person canvassing in a suburban neighborhood where they have had the police called on them. I just have not heard of it.”

Hill has obtained local attorney Gina Messamer of the Parrish Kruidenier Law Firm in Des Moines to represent him. He has posted a $300 bond and a pretrial conference has been set for Dec. 6 in Polk County.