Leaders from across Keokuk County gathered twice within a week — first on Thursday, July 9th, and again on Wednesday, July 15th — at the Keokuk County Courthouse and boardroom in Sigourney to work through a law enforcement coverage crisis that has left the county’s 16 incorporated cities without a single municipal police department, relying entirely on an understaffed sheriff’s office to cover nearly 580 square miles.
Meeting One: July 9th — Naming the Problem
The first meeting, requested by Keota Mayor Ryan Carr and Hedrick Mayor Mike Spilman, brought together mayors, city council members, the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Casey Hinnah, Chief Deputy Adam Pence, and State Representative Helena Hayes. Representatives from Keota, Richland, Sigourney, Hedrick, Hayesville, Watford and other communities attended, though roughly nine of the county’s incorporated cities were not represented.
Sigourney Mayor Gary Iosbaker set an optimistic tone early. “This is a fabulous gathering,” he said. “We’ve actually got most of the people in the room right now that can actually do something about the challenges that we face.”
That optimism didn’t erase the frustration in the room. Keota Mayor Ryan Carr opened with pointed comments about years of inaction. “We need to get down to a root cause,” he said. “The whole county is tired of this. We want to fix this problem, but we can’t fix this problem if we have a meeting and forget about it in a week.” Carr noted that roughly 38 employees — deputies and paramedics combined — have left the county’s public safety workforce over the past decade.
Keokuk County Supervisor Kevin Weber also spoke to the strain the current situation is placing on the department. “The deputies are working a lot of hours, a lot of overtime,” Weber said. “We don’t have any local cities to rely on for help with call outs or anything like that.”
Richland Mayor John Capps echoed the sentiment, describing what cities actually want. “You make a phone call, something happens in the middle of the night — you don’t know if you got one deputy or you’re not going to get nothing,” he said. “I’m not knocking the deputies because they’re stretched thin. But there’s got to be a route to fixing the issue. We want a phone call answered when something happens at 4:00 in the afternoon or 4:00 in the morning. We just want a response.”
Sheriff Hinnah confirmed his department is budgeted for six deputies but currently staffed with around four, and estimated response times to Richland — in the county’s southeast corner — at 20 to 25 minutes under normal conditions. “I haven’t driven 110 mph there to time it to see how long it would take,” he said. Pressed on turnover, Hinnah said simply, “Everyone has left for a different reason,” citing academy timelines, competing offers from neighboring counties, and one deputy’s departure to become Sigourney’s new police chief. The sheriff confirmed the office has budget capacity for two additional deputies, but the hiring process had not yet been opened to fill those positions at the time of the first meeting.
Hayesville council member and Sigourney gun shop owner Marcus Anderson pushed back on the idea that blame rested solely with the sheriff’s office, arguing that cities have long shifted the burden onto the department without adequately funding it. “We’re one of a handful of counties in the whole state that does not have a city police department in it — out of 99 counties, there’s maybe five to ten,” he said. “Our cities have put all the responsibility onto the sheriff’s office and then said, ‘Why can’t you do it, we can’t afford it.’ That’s not really a valid excuse.”
Anderson argued the staffing gap was far larger than officials were treating it and warned against thinking a modest increase would solve the problem. “We’re probably ten deputies short, and we’re trying to do it with three,” he said. “One or two isn’t going to make any difference — one or two is going to keep this gentleman from having to work 80 hours to only having to work 60. It’s still the same response time, they’re going to have to cover the same amount of ground. We’ve got to pay more money. We can’t afford it — that’s the bottom line. So we’re going to have to really look at ourselves. What can we do as cities?”
On funding, Keota has not had its own police department since 2023, and efforts to restore coverage have stalled over funding and staffing concerns. A group of four towns had previously offered roughly $100,000 toward additional patrol hours through a 28E agreement, but were told the issue wasn’t money — it was staffing. “We were going to be paying a lot more money, but we were told we weren’t going to get any more coverage,” Carr said. “How are we supposed to pay all this money when we’re a small community trying to make it work, and we’re not going to get anything in return?” Hinnah didn’t dispute the framing: “If you gave me $100,000 a day, I couldn’t provide the service. We don’t have the staff in place at this time.”
Carr also tried to frame what cities are actually asking for. “We don’t need somebody 24-7,” he said. “We just need somebody that’s willing to come through every so often just to establish that, hey, our police are here to protect us and they’re around. And at the current moment we just don’t have it.”
Rep. Hayes offered the example of Mahaska County, where the sheriff, supervisors and mayors structured 28E agreements based on historical call volume, ultimately funding about one and a half additional deputies collectively. She also pointed to New Sharon’s part-time city officer, who splits time between the city and a school resource role. “There are many options for you when it comes to police protection,” she said. “Lay out all those options and find out which one is the most feasible financially and which one is the most agreeable to everybody.” She reminded the group that Iowa law makes police protection a city responsibility regardless of ability to pay: “It’s not up to you to decide whether you’re going to do it or not. It’s your responsibility.”
The meeting closed with a commitment to form a steering committee, open the sheriff’s civil service hiring process immediately, and reconvene the following Wednesday, July 15th, at 7:00 p.m. in the county boardroom. “I haven’t given up,” Hinnah told the room. “Once we get fully staffed, then we can move forward with 28Es with all the towns and add more law enforcement.” Carr responded that follow-through would be the real test: “If Sheriff Hinnah and the sheriff’s department are willing to work with the cities and we can figure this out, I’m all for that road. But if he says we’re not going down this road, then we will go down another road.”
Meeting Two: July 15th — Working Out the Details
The second meeting was calmer but still uncertain about its own mandate. Several officials opened by acknowledging the first meeting’s outcome had been vague. “The outcome of our first meeting was a little ambiguous in terms of what is our charter here,” one attendee said. “We need to agree on what answer, to how are we going to approach this.” Others reframed it as necessary groundwork. “I took it as this is just a first step,” one mayor said. “We can’t walk away. We have something moving here.”
Much of the evening was spent defining, in practical terms, what “coverage” should actually mean. Officials agreed round-the-clock patrol wasn’t realistic or requested. “I don’t think we can expect anybody to be there eight hours a day. That’s not what we’re asking,” a Hedrick representative said. “If we could have somebody present, whatever those hours we decided would be something feasible for everybody, whether it be 10 hours a week or whatever that might be.” A Richland official offered a metaphor that resonated with the room: “If your mom tells you not to get in the cookie jar and then stands there and watches you, you’re not going to get in the cookie jar. But if she leaves the room, you’re going to get in the cookie jar. I think that’s what law enforcement does for our communities.”
Chief Deputy Adam Pence walked officials through how comparable counties structure their 28E agreements, noting that few are written strictly on an hourly basis anymore. He described models ranging from unspecified-hour patrol commitments to monthly billing based on actual calls for service, and recalled a past Keokuk County arrangement with Richland that simply required a deputy to “drive through town twice a day.” Pence also made clear the sheriff’s office won’t take on city ordinance enforcement — no loose-dog complaints, no noise complaints — leaving that with each city’s own code enforcement officer. “We go by state law and county ordinances at that point, and that’s what we enforce,” he said. Most mayors agreed that division made sense. “I don’t think it’s justifiable to have you guys trying to enforce our codes, our ordinances,” one said. “I think that’s the city’s responsibility.”
Pence was direct about what current staffing could realistically support: “We’re still at the point where we don’t have the manpower right now to enforce 40 hours a week… I’m not trying to be the negative person in the room, but we’ve got to figure that stuff out first, and then it might start small and the department expands, maybe the agreement can expand.”
On pricing, ideas ranged from a uniform per-capita or per-manhour rate to a tiered flat fee based on population — “anything over 500 population, they pay $30,000 a year, anything over a thousand, they pay $50,000,” Pence offered as an example, stressing it wasn’t a formal proposal. Keota, Sigourney, Hedrick and Richland indicated they were roughly aligned on a shared rate and would coordinate before bringing a joint proposal to the county attorney and Board of Supervisors. Smaller towns signaled a very different appetite — a Martinsburg representative said his community was content calling the sheriff’s office as needed, without paying for scheduled hours. “If Martinsburg is happy with what they got right now, we can sign a contract tomorrow just so you’re satisfied,” Pence said. “The law is satisfied as far as Martinsburg covered their requirement to have law enforcement. We’re done.” That split led officials to conclude a single countywide contract likely wasn’t realistic. “Each individual city is going to have their own contract with the county, with the sheriff’s office,” Pence said. “We’re not going to charge you guys $50 an hour and go to Richland and charge them $60.”
The idea of reviving a reserve officer program came up again. Pence explained the county moved away from reserves in the past because scheduling around a certified officer needing to be on duty elsewhere in the county proved unworkable — “the hours never really worked out” — though he confirmed the option remains legally available if smaller towns wanted to pursue it once the department is better staffed.
Discussion also turned to funding avenues beyond city contributions: competitive law enforcement grants worth potentially several million dollars in equipment and vehicles if enough cities signed on collectively, and School Resource Officer positions, which Rep. Hayes noted now carry increased state funding support. Hayes raised a new concern as well — a recently passed state law capping annual property tax levy growth at 2% for cities and counties, which she worried could limit how quickly the sheriff’s office could absorb new city funding even if every town signed on. She said the law “was not very well written for us in rural Iowa” and committed to researching the issue further. She also collected contact information from everyone in the room to build a standing email list. “One of the things we all consistently struggle with is communication,” she said. “How many times have all of you been in a room with all this leadership in this county before? Never.”
Partway through the meeting, Sigourney officials announced the city had just hired its own police officer as part of its effort to reconstitute a local department — pulled from the sheriff’s office’s existing deputy pool, meaning the move offered no immediate relief to the county’s overall shortage. “It made it worse, short term,” one official acknowledged.
Where Things Stand
Officials agreed not to treat the gatherings as formal open-records meetings requiring official minutes, but committed to summarizing progress for their own city councils and residents. They credited the sheriff’s office publicly posting its open deputy position, with reassuring residents the process was moving. Rather than scheduling another large joint session right away, the group agreed to coordinate through a shared email chain while individual cities draft their own proposed agreements to route through the county attorney’s office. A third meeting was set for September 16th at 7:00 p.m. in Sigourney.
“I think everything we meet together, it’s a bigger positive situation for everybody,” one official said as the second meeting closed. “We don’t have to agree on everything, because that’s not what it’s all about sometimes.”
State Representative Helena Hayes, in a social media post following the July 15th meeting, summarized the outcome as one of cautious optimism. She confirmed that leaders present would be returning to their city councils to discuss entering into 28E agreements with the sheriff’s department, and that the group would be seeking legal framework advice from the Keokuk County Attorney. Hayes also highlighted that the Keokuk County Sheriff’s Department posted an opening for a new deputy on July 13th — a direct result of the July 9th meeting — as a sign that the process was already moving forward. “There’s great optimism here and a path forward to provide further law enforcement police protection across Keokuk County,” she said.
