Recording Law for Family Law in Iowa

Iowa is a one-party consent state for audio recordings. That means you can legally record any conversation you are part of without telling the other person. The key law is Iowa Code § 808B.2(2)(c), which provides that it is not unlawful under this chapter for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication if the person is a party to the communication or if one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent, unless the communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing a criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of any state or for the purpose of committing any other injurious act. Iowa Code § 727.8(3)(a) independently exempts from the eavesdropping statute the recording by a sender or recipient of a message or one who is openly present and participating in or listening to a communication. In practice, if you are a party to or openly present at the conversation, you can record without notice. This applies whether the conversation happens in person, by phone, or over another electronic channel.

Iowa’s recording laws focus on audio, not silent video. Iowa Code § 808B.1(6) defines “intercept” as “the aural acquisition of the contents of a wire, oral, or electronic communication,” so video without audio is not covered. Iowa Code § 727.8(2) criminalizes “by any electronic or mechanical means listens to, records, or otherwise intercepts a conversation or communication of any kind,” which targets the content of a conversation, not video alone. That means you can set up a camera to record someone’s actions without their knowledge as long as you do not capture their spoken words. Home security cameras and doorbell cameras on your own property are allowed under Iowa law without consent.

Iowa’s consent laws do not create a special rule for recording inside someone else’s home. Trespass law applies instead. Iowa Code § 716.7 makes trespassing a crime, and Iowa Code § 727.8A makes it an aggravated misdemeanor for a first offense or a class D felony for a repeat offense to use a camera or surveillance device while trespassing under § 716.7. So you cannot legally enter private property to record, but if you are lawfully present, Iowa’s one-party consent rule still applies. For example, if you are invited into a home for a custody exchange, you can record the exchange as long as you are part of the conversation.

Iowa has no law that makes it a crime to record on-duty police in public. Iowa Code § 808B.1(8) excludes public conversations lacking a reasonable expectation of privacy from coverage, and Iowa Code § 808B.2(2)(c) and § 727.8(3)(a) both independently permit recording by a party or one openly present/participating. However, Iowa is in the Eighth Circuit, which has not clearly recognized a First Amendment right to record police. In Robbins v. City of Des Moines, 984 F.3d 673 (8th Cir. 2021), the court granted police qualified immunity on the First Amendment retaliation claim of a man recording illegally parked vehicles, officers, and civilian employees from a public sidewalk adjacent to the Des Moines police station specifically because the right to record police in public was not “clearly established” in the Eighth Circuit; it did allow his Fourth Amendment unlawful-seizure/false-arrest claim to proceed. In Chestnut v. Wallace, 947 F.3d 1085 (8th Cir. 2020), the Eighth Circuit noted that every circuit court to have considered the question has recognized a right to record police in public and found a clearly-established Fourth Amendment-based right to watch police-citizen interactions at a distance and without interfering, but stopped short of resolving the First Amendment question for the circuit. So while recording is not criminal, police may still order you to stop, and you have less legal protection if they retaliate.

Breaking Iowa’s recording laws can lead to criminal charges and civil lawsuits. Under Iowa Code § 808B.2(1), violating the interception law is a class D felony. Under Iowa Code § 727.8(2), eavesdropping is a serious misdemeanor. Under Iowa Code § 727.8A, using a camera while trespassing is an aggravated misdemeanor for a first offense and a class D felony for a repeat offense. If someone records you illegally, Iowa Code § 808B.8 provides a private right of action for damages of $100 per day or $1,000, whichever is greater, plus punitive damages, reasonable attorney fees, and injunctive relief.

Imagine you are picking up your child for a court-ordered visit. Your ex arrives late and starts arguing in the driveway about the exchange schedule. You discreetly start recording with your phone. Under Iowa law, this is legal because you are part of the conversation and Iowa is a one-party consent state. The recording captures the argument and the late arrival. Later, you use the recording in court to show the judge how the exchanges are going. The recording is admissible as long as it was made legally and is relevant to your case.

Iowa law expressly allows property owners and lessees to use surveillance systems on their own property without consent under two provisions. Iowa Code § 808B.2(2)(d) permits intercepting an oral communication via a surveillance system placed on real property if it is installed with the knowledge and consent of all lawful owners or lessees and is used to detect or prevent criminal activity. Separately, Iowa Code § 727.8(1) and (3)(c) exempt a monitoring device placed outside a person’s dwelling on real property the person owns or leases from the eavesdropping statute’s consent requirement entirely, effectively creating a no-consent-needed doorbell-camera/home-security exception. These provisions relax the rules for fixed home-security-type surveillance on one’s own property and do not impose a stricter rule inside one’s own home than elsewhere.