Polk County Health Department has handed out 1,719 gun locks over the past year

DES MOINES, Iowa — Last August the Polk County Health Department started its Talk It Up Lock It Up campaign where it worked with cities across the county to provide free gun locks to residents to help reduce gun-related accidents.

Addie Olson, a Public Health Communications Officer with the Polk County Health Department, said that over the past year, the city has handed out 1,719 gun locks.

“We did not set off with a goal when we started this campaign with a certain number of gun locks that we wanted to hand out. But we believe that every gun lock that we do hand out and every firearm that is now secured is a success because that gun is safe and we’re preventing any injuries from happening hopefully,” Olson said.

Through the program, police departments and libraries across Polk County have free gun locks available to residents. For a list and map of pick-up locations for free gun locks visit Polk County’s website .

Olson said that the county is waiting for more data before they can see the impact of the Talk It Up Lock It Up campaign.

“As more data becomes available we will definitely continue to look at that and see what kind of impact we can maybe correlate to this campaign,” Olson said.

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