A former Iowa police officer accused of the repeated use of excessive force is now suing the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy for suspending his certification as a peace officer.

Kyle Howe resigned from City of Toledo’s police force in 2023 when city officials publicly condemned him for what they alleged were multiple instances of excessive force. Howe’s resignation came in the midst of an internal investigation that involved a review of various body-camera videos involving several individuals he had arrested.

At the time, City Attorney Michael Marquess said city officials were “shocked and dismayed by Mr. Howe’s abhorrent behavior in what we believe to be several instances of unnecessary force.”

In September 2023, two separate lawsuits were filed against Howe and the City of Toledo in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, each alleging false arrest, assault, battery, negligent supervision and civil rights violations. That was followed by similar lawsuits filed by other citizens in November 2023, February 2024 and May 2024. A sixth lawsuit was filed in February 2025.

Court records indicate that of the six lawsuits, one resulted in a jury finding in favor of Howe, one resulted in a summary judgment in favor of Howe, one resulted in an out-of-court settlement and three resulted in a dismissal that may or may not have involved a settlement.

In February 2024, the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy initiated its efforts to suspend or revoke Howe’s certification. In December 2025, a final decision was made to suspend Howe’s certification for three years. By suing the academy, Howe is now seeking judicial review of that decision.

Arrest triggers investigation, resignation

According to Howe’s court petition, he graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in October 2017 and was hired a few weeks later by the State Center Police Department. In August 2018, he was hired by the Toledo Police Department.

Court records indicate the City of Toledo promoted Howe to the position of sergeant in November 2022 and bestowed several awards and accommodations on him during his years with the department. According to the records, Howe received no formal field training or training in report writing or conflict de-escalation while working for the city.

On March 30, 2023, Howe conducted a traffic stop and arrested Shyla Wolf, who later complained to the police chief that she was mistreated by Howe. On April 7, 2023, the city opened a formal investigation into the matter and one week later Howe was placed on administrative leave.

On April 23, 2023, Howe resigned. The next day, the city’s hired investigator, Jon Thomas, presented the preliminary report on his investigation to the city, which publicly condemned Howe’s conduct while stating it did not rise to the level of excessive force.

Around that time, Howe was the focus of a KCRG-TV report that included body-camera footage of him physically restraining Wolf, who was suspected of driving while barred.

The Tama Toledo News Chronicle subsequently posted to its YouTube channel a series of videos from traffic stops conducted by Howe, some which show Howe pushing people to the ground and yelling, seemingly without provocation, “Stop resisting!”

On Feb. 15, 2024, the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy initiated efforts to decertify Howe as an Iowa peace officer.

Howe, meanwhile, had taken a job with the Polk County Juvenile Detention Center where he worked as a youth service worker. He later was hired as a youth counselor for the state-run Iowa State Training School in Eldora.

Report: Howe lacked the ‘cognitive capacity’ to recall arrest details

State records show Howe contested the academy’s efforts to suspend or revoke his certification, which led to a two-day hearing in April 2025 before Administrative Law Judge Denise Timmins.

At the hearing, Thomas served as the state’s expert witness and indicated he had reviewed several arrests by Howe and although he found no use of excessive force, he did conclude Howe had problems “overall (with) some poor decision making” related to documentation, report writing, and inappropriate language.

Thomas found that Howe’s tone of voice, his choice of words, and his use of profanities were unprofessional and helped create what he characterized as “a public perception of excessive force.” Howe, Thomas said, had demonstrated a pattern of conduct in which he “just did not attempt to de-escalate or bring down the temperature of the conversation” with arrestees.

In his investigative report for the City of Toledo, Thomas stated that while Howe’s written arrest reports may have conflicted with what could be seen on video of those arrests, Howe “did not have the cognitive capacity to accurately recall” all of the details of those arrests when writing his reports.

Judge: Howe ‘lacked judgment and discipline’

While lawyers for the academy argued that Howe, by providing false information in his reports, had committed serious misconduct warranting the revocation of his certification, Timmins found that Howe was, at most, “careless in his report writing.”

Timmins also found that while Howe had claimed in his reports to have “assisted” — rather than forced — arrestees to the ground, such language doesn’t represent a false statement but is instead a “poor choice of words” that reflects the actual language Howe and other police officers throughout the nation are specifically trained to use in their reports.

“If one were to watch the videos without having any other context or evidence to supplement what is observed, the immediate emotional reaction is alarm and dismay over the actions taken and words said by (Howe),” Timmins wrote in her decision “However, in legal proceedings, emotions cannot replace evidence.”

As to whether Howe committed a lower level of misconduct that could result in the suspension of his certification, Timmins sided with the state.

Timmins wrote that Howe’s “tone of voice, his aggressive stance, the consistency of his desire to take subjects to the ground, his choice of words used during his interactions, and his overall lack of empathy and respect when dealing with another human being that he has authority over, all fall well below the current standards of the profession … Just as important, this conduct occurred over an extended period of time with multiple instances.”

She added that during Howe’s “tenure with the Toledo Police Department, he was rough around the edges,” and “lacked judgment and discipline of emotions when others around him challenged his authority.” She stated that while “none of these actions are ideal in a law enforcement officer,” they are traits that “can change with age, maturity and proper training.”