A couple weeks ago, I wrote an article detailing the assault of an Ames resident and his feelings regarding the experience. Some of his concerns involved the attention he received from the Ames Police Department. After the article was published, I had the opportunity to sit down with Scott Clewell, the officer in charge of the investigation, and Jim Robinson, the police commander, who were kind enough to tell me more about how this investigation unfolded.

For consistency and privacy, I will be using the same pseudonyms I used for the original article.

“When I arrived at the scene, I got a statement from Steve and a statement from a witness,” Clewell said. “The assailant (Jeff) had already run away, but I had his information, so I went to his home. He wasn’t there, and we were met with deception from the person who was home. She claimed that she didn’t know Jeff, which we later found to be a lie.”

Not surprisingly, deception is common in Clewell’s line of work.

“When we’re trying to solve a case, people often try to make it hard for us, and we get lied to a lot,” Clewell said. “On top of that, we got a completely different story from Jeff when we did catch up to him, which meant we had to double check with the witness. All these things added time to the investigation.”

The assault took place Jan. 6, and the investigation spanned over the next 12 days, ending with an arrest warrant that was issued Jan. 18. According to Robinson, this is a relatively short amount of time.

“In terms of time, this investigation was average to quick,” Robinson said. “When you issue an arrest warrant, you’re talking about taking away someone’s liberty. This is a very serious thing, and we have to make sure that we leave no stone unturned. Say, for example, that we don’t have the right Jeff and issue an arrest warrant for the wrong man. That’s when we have a real mess on our hands. You can never be too careful when you’re talking about possibly taking away someone’s rights — you need to be certain that you have the proper identification, and leave no room for error.”

In general, this caution and attention to detail has made the Ames Police Department extremely successful.

“We don’t usually hear anything negative about what we do,” Clewell said. “We have a very specific way of doing things, and it works.”

Clewell notified Steve that the arrest warrant had been issued Jan. 18 —the day before my original article was published. Steve is very relieved now that a sense of closure has been brought to the situation.

For most of us, experiences such as Steve’s would be a harsh reality shock. It goes to show that no matter how hard you try to avoid trouble and violent confrontations, sometimes they will find you. It makes perfect sense for this realization to be difficult and unnerving, and for that I don’t blame Steve one bit. The amount of concern in his reaction was fair and natural. However, after taking the time to speak with two of the men working hard to resolve these issues, it gives me a great deal of reassurance to know that they’re so dedicated to what they do.