(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
An Iowa police officer's eight-year journey back to recertification • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
['Tom Foley', 'Lynn Hicks', 'Tim Henderson ǀ Stateline', 'Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- June', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline']
Date: 2025-06-26
Eight years after Christopher Hudrick was fired from the Des Moines Police Department and lost his certification, he is again able to work as a police officer.
His certification was suspended for a minimum period of three years from Sept. 1, 2020. Hudrick fought his termination, appealing the Des Moines Civil Service Commission’s ruling that denied his petition for reinstatement, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
Hudrick was terminated after violating a last chance agreement in January 2017, after nearly 10 years with the Des Moines Police Department.
During his time, he accumulated a record of 11 reprimands and a total of 37 days suspended. These violations range from hitting an airplane with his squad car to failing to pull over for Iowa State Patrol, according to court records filed by the commission.
“I’ve gone through a lot this whole process, I’ve grown, I’ve matured.” Hudrick said during his reinstatement discussion with the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy Council. “Since the past, I’ve been able to perform what I know to be what I love at a high level.”
His career
Growing up, Hudrick loved superheroes. He cites the stories of Spiderman and Captain America as a reason for he developed a passion for justice.
“Heroes, they go out and save the day. They don’t do it because they have the power — they do it because they want to. Because they can go out and they can help people. Part of that always stuck in my head, I can go out and I can help people and I’m good at that because I can find a way to relate to somebody,” he said in an interview with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
He said he decided to become a police officer after 9/11. At the time, Hudrick had the day off from his job at a gas station, but was unexpectedly called in due to a huge influx of customers.
“Cars were lined up for miles trying to get gas and they needed help at one of the other gas stations in town just down the road,” he said. “People were getting in fights over who gets gas next, so, I mean, it was chaotic. Everyone was freaking out and rightfully so. But, the thing that dawned on me after that had all happened was that I didn’t freak out, I stayed calm amidst everything that was going on and was able to get things flowing smoothly.”
Following a conversation with a deputy from the Story County Sheriff’s Office, he applied to be a corrections officer at the local detention center. He applied “over and over and over again,” did well on his tests and did well in his interviews but he was never hired due to a lack of college education.
“I was like, ‘How much longer am I going to do this? I know what I want to do, how much longer am I going to put it off?’ So, I made the decision to go back to school so I could get my degree in criminal justice,” he said.
While taking courses, Hudrick was a member of the Criminal Justice Club, which allowed him to get “hands-on experience” with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. He “really enjoyed” the training and his passion for law enforcement “kept growing.” By the time he graduated, he no longer wanted to be in corrections, he wanted to be a police officer.
Hudrick was hired by the city of Des Moines in 2007. In his nearly 10 years with the force he had several moments he looks back fondly on.
One day he got a call for an 8-year-old boy who was attacking workers and tearing up his room at a Youth Emergency Shelter.
“When I got there, he actually wanted me to shoot him and kill him. He’s like 8 years old. He would make a sailor blush with his language. I mean, it was bad. So, I had to break down that barriers between me and him. You know, I’m a police officer and he hates police officers and he wants me to shoot him,” Hudrick said.
He spotted a Batman and Superman sticker on the kid’s wall. As a lifelong comics fan, Hudrick offered to pick up some graphic novels from the library if the boy would calm down and clean up his room. The boy didn’t believe him, but he went anyway.
That same day, “The Incredible Hulk” star Lou Ferrigno, a “childhood hero” of Hudrick’s, was visiting the department. Rather than attending the appearance, he “put that aside,” to deal with the youth but calls it “one of the best, most rewarding things” he’s ever done.
“He did change but then he would act up and get in trouble just so they would call me, because he wanted to see me,” he said.
Following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, in 2012, every time he dropped his daughter off at school, he would remain on campus until the last kid arrived to ease the worries of the family and faculty. For this, he received a letter of appreciation from the principal. He also received a letter of appreciation for “kindly and delicately” treating victims of a home invasion.
Hudrick said he prevented multiple suicides during his career, one of which he received a chief’s commendation for.
“Coming from having a bit of a troubled childhood and home life, it helps me to relate to them. ‘I’m not in your circumstances but I’ve been in that circumstance.’ I can relate through my own experiences,” he said.
Hudrick says these experiences and more “fueled that passion” he had for law enforcement.
His termination
“In my case, I’ve got a lot of experience. I’ve got a lot of experience with helping, I’ve got a lot of experience with making my mistakes but the most important thing is to own the mistakes and learn from them,” he said.
In 2008, he received two written reprimands. In 2009, he was suspended for three days, a two-day suspension in July and a one-day suspension in October. In October 2010, he received a 12-day suspension for mishandling property. In July 2011, he received a written reprimand followed by a four-day suspension for a separate instance of misconduct. In September 2013, he received a one-day suspension. All disciplinary actions were accepted without appeal from Hudrick.
Among the violations are reprimands for hitting an airplane at an airport with his squad car, mishandling property, refusing to pull over for the Iowa State Patrol and driving in “emergency mode” without lights and sirens. His police chief called his disciplinary record “abysmal” in a letter to Hudrick, filed in court records on behalf of the service commission.
Hudrick notes in his reinstatement discussion with the law enforcement academy council that he “never had complaints with use of force, never any integrity issues or falsifying evidence.”
“It was based on me wanting to impress people,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was me just getting in my own way. Just hitting the gas and going like I had a rocket strapped to my back.”
In 2015, Hudrick caused an accident, did not stop at the scene, as required by Iowa law, and failed to check on the condition of the driver he hit, according to court records filed on behalf of the service commission. The records also indicate that at the time, Police Chief Dana Wingert “was inclined to terminate Hudrick’s employment” but instead imposed a ‘last chance warning’ and a 15-day suspension.
Hudrick’s last chance warning indicated, “Any future incidents of misconduct of any kind including but not limited to the exercise of poor judgment, poor driving, inappropriate care of evidence, poor service, unprofessionalism, failure to perform assigned tasks, or otherwise failing to fulfill your assigned duties WILL result in your termination from employment.”
Hudrick disputes details of the court record about his violations, including arguing that he “never saw” the Iowa State Patrol vehicle involved in the failure to stop violation and that the alleged hit-and-run was a case of him not realizing there had been contact with the other vehicle. He said he took responsibility for the accident when asked.
Following the incident, Hudrick notes at his reinstatement discussion, he sat down with “a really good mentor and officer Pat Hickey,” and determined that he “needed to slow himself down.”
“He told me to drive like the chief was in the car, so I did. And it worked, it really did work. I was able to respond to several different calls where instead of just hitting the gas, I pictured where it was at, the different ways it could go for suspects leaving the scene and then just went that way. I didn’t push the envelope, I didn’t get crazy or anything like that and time after time after time, it put me right in the exact right spot,” he told the council.
On Sept. 22, 2016, Hudrick responded to a call for police service where a couple had handcuffed themselves together and were unable to find the key, according to court records. He claimed that he and the couple laughed about the incident. After assisting the couple, he returned to his police car and took a picture of the Des Moines Police Department Mobile Data Terminal which displayed details of the call for service. He posted this image to Facebook with comments such as “arm to leg…you can’t make this stuff up folks?” and “you should have seen them hopping across the floor…lol.”
The post was determined by the Department of Professional Standards to be in violation of several department policies, related to professionalism and the dissemination of information.
“It was really a brighter moment in what was going on at the time. Nobody in law enforcement was good in 2016,” he said at the reinstatement discussion. “That post wasn’t meant to make fun of them, it was meant to show a funny moment.”
In his reinstatement discussion, Hudrick notes that at the time he was affected by the passing of his squad members. Earlier that year, officers Carlos Puente-Morales and Susan Farrell were killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver while transporting a prisoner from Council Bluffs back to Des Moines. He argued that 2016 was a “bad year” for law enforcement “no matter what you did.”
“What we do doesn’t stop at that moment. We still have to go out and do our job,” he said. “The grieving process isn’t something you get to fully actuate and get through.”
According to Hudrick, at the time of his termination, the department had yet to adopt a social media policy. The complaint against his post came internally and he was terminated for making a “news release” with his Facebook post.
On Jan. 6, 2017, Hudrick’s employment was terminated by Wingert.
Hudrick filed several appeals to argue his termination, first to the Des Moines Civil Service Commission, then to the courts. In both cases the termination was reaffirmed.
His eight-year hiatus
Before his certification was suspended, he had applied for jobs with the Iowa State Patrol, as well as positions in Ankeny, Pleasant Hill, Urbandale and Carlisle. He notes that in applying to other jobs his past “always came back to haunt” him.
“If it wasn’t for my wife, I don’t know if I would be sitting here. She’s supported me, she’s kept me grounded, she’s been nothing short of amazing in every sense of the world. That’s an understatement,” he said. “We’re still together after all this, after almost losing everything.”
Hudrick says he lost his ability to provide for his family. Going into law enforcement was also a means of securing a good job and losing that hit his family in a significant way. They were forced to cash in a large part of their retirement savings and relied on support from their family to stay “on dry land,” he said.
Following his termination, Hudrick worked for a year at Uber without any driving issues. After realizing he “needed something more sustainable,” he worked as a delivery route driver for FedEx for four years. When he began working there, he had an extended route that took him into southern Iowa — a 10-hour route Monday through Friday. He compiled no issues with his driving during this time.
“Driving 10 hours a day gives you a lot of time to think and reflect,” he said in his reinstatement discussion. “So, it’s a lot of learning how to self check, getting my head where it needs to be and to be present in the moment, accepting the stupid things I did and learning from them.”
At FedEx, he transitioned to a route to Urbandale where he received a safe driving award.
In 2022, he started working in production at Kemin industries but moved to “different departments within the company and learned new areas and new skills.”
But ultimately, Hudrick said, law enforcement is his passion. One of his main reasons for getting recertified after his eight-year hiatus, is to help newer officers who are struggling “to not go down that same path, where you just keep tripping over your own feet.”
His recertification
The reinstatement discussion for Hudrick was held by the ILEA on April 3, 2025. Hudrick was accompanied by his lawyer, Mark Hedberg, who represented him during his termination appeals in 2017.
“To hear the stories on that side of the bench and the struggle that you guys have to come up with the right decision, pulling out the facts, sorting that out. It’s very humbling and very refreshing,” Hedberg said at the start of the reinstatement discussion. “The integrity of public safety is number one, your job is to keep the public on the right side and I think you’ve done a great job of that here in Iowa. Having said that, I support him wholeheartedly.”
Following his discussion, the board members had no comments other than board chair Ric Martinez commenting he had “been out of law enforcement for a while…but as we all know, police work is still police work.”
Councilmember Dan Jansen motioned to grant the reinstatement for Christopher Hudrick stating the “reason for the suspension no longer exists and it is in the state’s best interest to fully return state certification.”
All council members approved the reinstatement.
Kristi Traynor, legal counsel to the ILEA, said board members would not comment on the reinstatement. In the reinstatement order, the council concluded that Hudrick “demonstrated his growth and maturity through stability in other employment,” and “further accepted responsibility for his behavior.” They added “there no longer continues to be public safety given the evidence of rehabilitation.”
The Des Moines Police Department did not take part in the recertification process beyond the ILEA Council’s review of documents related to its termination of Hudrick and the department had no further comment, Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a statement.
He has not applied for a job since his reinstatement. He said “that passion hasn’t died,” but he wants to wait to confirm that “mentally” it’s something he can still do.
“It feels like home,” he said to the academy board members. “It’s what I am good with, I’m good with people. My mindset is that we’re not out there to mess with people, we’re there to help people,”
Hudrick and his wife requested not to be photographed to maintain their family’s privacy.
This story has been updated to include a response from a Des Moines Police Department spokesman, a clarification of Hudrick’s appeal of a Des Moines Civil Service Commission decision and further response from Hudrick to details in the court record of violations leading to his dismissal from the Des Moines Police Department.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/06/26/an-iowa-police-officers-eight-year-journey-back-to-recertification/
Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/
