(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation celebrated its 100th birthday, riday. During a ceremony at the state capitol, Special Agent Adam DeCamp says the agency was created as the Bureau of Criminal Investigation on April 9th, 1921. “While much has changed with the world since then — the principles that led to the creation of the Bureau remain. The cooperation of effort and purpose between local authorities, the public, and the state,” DeCamp says.
Special Agent Adam DeCamp (at the podium) w/Gov. Reynolds seated on the left & Marshalltown Police Chief Michael Tupper on the right. (Radio Iowa)
DeCamp says the tasks of the agency now best known by the acronym D-C-I have gone from chasing the Barrow gang to regulating Iowa casinos. He says the heinous crimes often overshadowed the work of the agency — which he says is to help the people of Iowa. “For more than 36-thousand days, the men and women of the D-C-I have come to work knowing that each name on a registry represents someone else’s lost innocence. Every piece of evidence represents someone’s broken life. And every phone call in the middle of the night is an invitation to someone’s worst day,” DeCamp says. “Each member of the D-C-I made a conscious choice to stand with our law enforcement partners to ensure that the guilt should not escape, nor the innocence suffer.”
Governor Kim Reynolds spoke about the longevity of the agency. “A hundred years of uninterrupted service to the people of Iowa is a monumental achievement. One made all the more impressive, considering that the agency has only grown better with age,” Reynolds says. Reynolds says she gets a report each month from the D-C-I and says there are many heartwrenching stories. “Stories of pain and brutality, abuse and theft. And of course, heartbreak and bereavement for victims,” she says. ” But D-C-I’s victim-centered approach demonstrates that there’s no contradiction between world-class investigative prowess and treating victims of profound injustice the way we ourselves would want to be treated.”
Marshalltown Police Chief Michael Tupper spoke about his association with the organization. “I’ve worked with a lot of rock-star caliber professionals serving and protecting at the local, state, and federal level. The Iowa D-CI for me had always represented the best of the best, without a doubt,” Tupper says. “The state of Iowa is very fortunate to have high-caliber women and men serving all levels of the D-C-I.” He says the relationships the state agency builds with local officers are invaluable.
The D-C-I joined the new Department of Public Safety in 1939 as a charter bureau. It took over crime scene examination and preservation duties in 1970 with the creation of the criminalistics lab. The law enforcement agencies were unified in 1983 under a larger umbrella and took the Division name.
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