A new law is underway that the law enforcement community as a whole supported throughout the 2025 Iowa Legislative Session.

Senate File 22, otherwise known as the Hands Free Bill, prohibits the use of cellphones or electronic devices while driving, unless it is in the hands free mode. Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams is a staunch supporter of the new law and says when this was a secondary offense, it was very difficult to issue a citation.

“It basically made it impossible to write somebody a citation unless they were involved in an accident. You could see them texting and driving right beside you but until they break another law you couldn’t do anything about it.”

Williams explains that in a scenario of a traffic stop for another reason, just trying to get the evidence needed to show that someone was on their cell phone while driving was incredibly tough.

“We would have to prove or have our body camera on at the time to catch them to show that they did have the cell phone in their hands and were texting or calling. So it made it very, very, very hard to enforce it.”

Williams points out that when the bill was originally signed into law this past April by Governor Kim Reynolds, he was happy because at that time there were two traffic-related fatalities in the last two years in Greene County that were due to texting while driving. Under the new law where warnings will be issued by law enforcement for the rest of this year and citations can start on January 1, 2026, Williams expects there to be several warnings given now and he hopes people will learn so that citations are not through the roof.