DES MOINES — The lawyer for the family of a Burlington woman who was shot and killed by a police officer in January 2015 may seek the release of police car dashboard camera video and any unreleased 911 call audio, the Iowa Supreme Court said Thursday.

The decision is a partial victory for the family of Autumn Steele and open records advocates because it allows them to pursue getting additional information about the shooting that they’ve been fighting to obtain for over six years.

The ruling also affirms the right of citizens who seek the release of public records from the Iowa Public Information Board to appeal to the board’s decisions to the courts without requiring further board filings.

The court, however, did not clearly say that 911 calls, body camera video and dashcam video cannot be withheld from the public as part of peace officers’ investigative reports, likely meaning future law enforcement agencies will continue to fight the release of such records.

The shooting of Steele by Jesse Hill, a Burlington police officer, prompted a lengthy legal fight after the police department and the Iowa Department of Public Safety refused to release written, video and audio records of the case, claiming they were exempted from state open records laws as confidential peace officers’ reports.

Steele’s family hired Georgia lawyer Adam Klein to seek public records about the shooting and he pursued the records through the Iowa Public Information Board and an appeal to the Iowa courts. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa represented Klein in his efforts.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a state court judge’s ruling dismissing the case and said Klein does have standing to seek records that have not already been made public, including any 911 call recordings and police car dashcam video. The justices sent the case back to the judge to consider the release of this material.

“This means that our client can continue to pursue, in his litigation in the district court, any of the dashcam, 911 call, and bodycam records that have not been previously released,” ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen said in a statement. “The presumption that government records are open to the public absent a compelling reason for secrecy is a hallmark of democratic government.”

The Iowa attorney general’s office, which represents the board, declined to comment Thursday on the ruling. A lawyer for the Burlington Police Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Klein and the ACLU also had asked the court to include the release of other materials including other records about the shooting but the court confined it to just the 911 calls and dashcam video, saying those were the only issues preserved on appeal.

Hill fatally shot Steele while responding to a call about a domestic dispute between her and her husband outside of their home in January 2015. Hill said he opened fire to protect himself from an attacking family dog. He mistakenly shot Steele in the chest and killed her as one of her two young sons was feet away.

Former Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers declined to prosecute Hill and he later returned to work. Beavers later declined to release records related to the investigation and was found to have violated Iowa’s open records laws. She paid a $200 fine in December 2015.

The city of Burlington settled a federal wrongful death lawsuit by paying Steele’s family $2 million in June 2018.

After the shooting, news organizations including the Burlington Hawk Eye newspaper also sought the release of records that would shine a light on the shooting but the law enforcement agencies refused except for a press release, a letter from the county attorney and a 12-second clip from Hill’s body camera footage. The Iowa Freedom of Information Council also pursued legal action to get documents released.

In August 2018, a federal judge ordered the city of Burlington to release additional body camera footage and more records. U.S. Senior Judge James Gritzner ruled that the city’s arguments that the records should remain sealed “carry little weight.” The city had claimed, among other things, that the previous release of 12 seconds of footage from Hill’s body camera was enough.