Iowa DCI: Investigations of police shootings involve far more than just viewing cam videos

Even in a world where surveillance cameras seem to be everywhere, investigating an officer-related shooting is not as easy as pushing the “play” button on a body cam, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official says.

The DCI will be investigating the fatal shooting by Des Moines police Tuesday of a Nebraska man and the wounding by friendly fire of a police officer.

The DCI routinely investigates officer-involved shootings at the request of law enforcement agencies, said DCI Special Agent in Charge Adam DeCamp. He agreed to answer the Des Moines Register's questions about the how and why the probes are conducted without discussing the specifics of the Des Moines case, which left Omaha-area resident Weston Dean Derby, 45, dead and a police officer, struck by another officer's gunfire, hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

More: Des Moines police officer shot by friendly fire asks about returning to work

DeCamp said it is an important to note that when the DCI gets involved with the investigation of an officer-related shooting, it is at the request of the local law enforcement agency.

“The DCI doesn’t just say, ‘We heard there’s been an officer-involved shooting, we are coming into investigate,’ " he said. "I've been doing this for a long time. I could probably come up with, you know, if I really sat down and thought about it, went through all the records, there's a few times where we haven't been called in for one reason or another, but you know, anymore, it's pretty standard practice all across the state for agencies to call us in.”

He said Des Moines police "reached out to us to come in and do this independent and criminal investigation, and I think that's a very important part when police agencies are asking us to come in for transparency and accountability, saying, 'Hey, we’re opening up the curtains, asking the DCI to come in and actually do this investigation,’ " DeCamp said.

Investigations go well beyond just viewing cam footage, DCI says

Some police-related shootings can be easily investigated because of the evidence available through body and patrol car cameras and dispatcher recordings, DeCamp said — but not always.

“I think there's some people out there that have said, ‘Well, gosh, just watch the body cam.’ Well, the camera only sees what the camera sees and you get officers that wear them on their chest or on their shoulder, which is kind of what they're designed for. But in a shooting situation, the officer’s hands come up and a lot of times you don't get to see everything that happens, which is why it's so important to have that good interview of witnesses and good interviews of the officers to put all the pieces together,” he said.

In addition to the interviews and review of cam footage, DeCamp said the investigations include collecting and analyzing physical evidence such as shell casings and determining bullet lines and trajectories.

From April: Cedar Rapids police shoot, kill armed man, wound bystander, Iowa officials say

“When possible, we will track where the bullets themselves go to determine, does that make sense with what we are seeing on the body cam, does that makes sense with what officers and witnesses are telling us?” he said.

The weapons involved also will be examined to determine if they were working as manufactured.

“Was it when you pulled the trigger, did it go bang? Did it go bang before you pulled the trigger? I'm not aware of that ever happening, but that's something we do examine as well,” DeCamp said.

He said he recently had a conversation with other investigators about the fact that with ballistic evidence, shootings can sometimes be easier to investigate than a car accident.

“If you think about a traffic accident, you know the car rolls over and you may never know why the car left the road, so traffic accidents can actually be more complicated to work than shooting investigations,” he said.

Shooting probes result in training changes

Officer-related shootings also include looking at training programs for the agency involved. DeCamp said most departments require their officers to complete certain firearms training every year.

“So a really important piece of this is if the officer is certified to use the weapon they're using,” he said.

While determining what exactly happened during a police-related shooting is the primary goal, the result of the investigation also becomes a key component in law enforcement training, he said.

More: Waterloo police kill 35-year-old who allegedly shot 2 officers

One important change that has occurred as a result of the investigations is in where officers position themselves when the suspect they are trying to stop is in a vehicle, he said.

“Years ago... officers would stand in front of cars and that could lead to a shooting because now the car starts moving and the officer has to fire," he said. "We're not seeing a lot of that anymore, thankfully, because of training, because of things we've seen in other shootings. Just about every shooting, there's something to take away as a training nugget.”

While investigations can’t change the past, they can provide important insight on how to operate in the future, DeCamp said.

“Tactically it's important to review them (shooting investigations) and say, ‘OK, is there something that we can do to keep officers safe, to keep the public safe?’ So yeah, it's very important to review all aspects of an officer-involved shooting,” he said.

Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa DCI: Investigations of police shootings involve far more than just viewing cam videos