The new police reform law that was signed by Governor Kim Reynolds continues to see reactions from local law enforcement.

The bill outlined three key areas for law enforcement to follow. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office will investigate a death that was caused by law enforcement, the bill also bans chokeholds with exception of extreme cases such as life threatening situations, and the bill prevents law enforcement from hiring officers who were fired for serious misconduct incidents.  Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams tells Raccoon Valley Radio the new law is a step in the right direction, and he shares his thoughts on the hiring prevention portion of the legislation.

“I’d agree 100-percent that they should not be rehired for any reason. And if there are officers out there who have those serious situations in the past, they should probably be dismissed in my opinion. If (police) chiefs, sheriffs, city councils, supervisors are doing their due diligence (and) properly investigating a person before they’re hired, they should be seeing that stuff anyway as a red flag that they need to move on to a different person.”

Jefferson Police Chief Mark Clouse agrees with not using a chokehold unless an officer is in an extreme situation.

“If it is a bad situation you’re involved in and there’s just you and the other assailant there, and it is a life and death situation for the officer, do I think a chokehold should not be used? I think you’ve got to look at it on kind of a case-by-case thing. Obviously we’re not going to train for that, we’re not going to encourage that.”

Clouse notes most of their training comes from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, where officers are trained in a variety of ways to control an individual, with chokeholds not being one of them.  The law followed a national movement for changing practices of law enforcement after the death of George Floyd while in custody of a former Minneapolis police officer. The new Iowa law goes into effect July 1st.