DES MOINES, Iowa — In 2024, Des Moines police were involved in three officer-involved shootings. Now, less than two months into 2025, there have already been three officer-involved shootings in Des Moines. Over the last seven months, Des Moines police officers have been involved in six separate officer-involved shootings, resulting in six deaths and two officer injuries.

The Polk County Attorney’s office and the Iowa Attorney General’s office cleared police in the three cases last year, and currently have cleared one of the cases for 2025.

Police say the answer to stopping these incidents isn’t easy; you have to look at access to firearms, individuals refusing custody, and those who were found suicidal in post-investigations. Des Moines police say deadly force is always the last resort.

“When you look at the number of guns we take off the street in the city, there are hundreds of encounters that we have with people who are armed every year, and we manage to get that dialog going or we managed to get through those without any use of significant or deadly force. So, we know it can be done if you just give us the chance and if you just work with us. But, you know, there’s sometimes, there’s just the choices made and we don’t have any choice other than to respond to what’s presented to us,” said Sergeant Paul Parizek, Public Information Officer for the Des Moines Police Department.

Sgt. Parizek said in those moments, officers are only given milliseconds to respond. After every investigation involving the use of deadly force by officers, the Des Moines Police Department releases videos, utilizing police body cameras and narration to describe each case and help show the public what officers face while in these situations. Sgt. Parizek says these videos are key to helping the public understand the decision-making behind the officer’s actions.

“We have to show the community and the public what we’re doing and why we do it so that you can understand why we make the decisions that we make. If you can’t see what’s happening and if you don’t understand what we’re up against sometimes, then you’re not going to understand why we do what we do. And that’s what transparency is, is giving you enough information so that you can understand why we make the decisions that we do and why we do the things that we do,” said Sgt. Parizek.

Sgt. Parizek also talked about the consequences if police don’t respond fast enough.

“We’ve seen what happens, you know, if there’s hesitation, or not an opportunity to respond. Look at 2016, you know, with Justin Martin and Anthony Beminio, they were assassinated in their cars without an opportunity to respond. You know, we just had two officers shot and fortunately, one of them was able to respond and there were other backup officers there. So, we know what happens if we don’t respond in that millisecond. We know what happens, and you can’t you can’t take that chance.”

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