Watch video of hazy University of Iowa scene captured on police body camera
During a hazing incident in November 2024, dozens of blindfolded pledge forms were found inside a fraternity house at the University of Iowa.
New police body camera footage from the hazing incident at the University of Iowa fraternity house has been released, showing more than 20 men blindfolded and covered in substances in a basement, more than a year after the original incident.
Iowa City police and fire departments and University of Iowa police responded to a fire alarm at an Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house on Nov. 15, 2024, and found food being thrown at 56 pledges who were blindfolded.
The university investigated the incident and ultimately suspended the fraternity for four years until 2029.
Here’s what we know about the recently released footage and hazing incident.
What does the body camera footage show?
A compilation video posted on YouTube by The CrimePiece has been viewed more than 630,000 times and shows police and firefighters responding to the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity’s home. The Iowa City Press-Citizen, part of the USA TODAY Network, also obtained the same unedited body camera footage from the University of Iowa Police Department.
In the footage, officers discover a basement filled with blindfolded young people. Some people are shirtless. Many appear to be covered in white, yellow, red, or brown substances.
Watch some of the footage in the video at the top of this story.
“Everyone, we’ll stop here.”
Iowa City and University of Iowa police repeatedly urged the two men in the video to contact the father or “person in charge” of the home. A man wearing a white hoodie stands at the entrance to the room, holding a beer. He introduced himself as “Jose” and presented his ID to the officer, saying, “I think it’s fake.”
In the video, police shine a light into the basement and try to talk to the men standing silently, with one officer saying, “Stop here, guys. This is the police station, stop here.” Officers urged the shirtless men to leave the room, but they did not move. At one point, an officer asked if anyone was hurt. No one reacts.
Officers ordered the two shirtless men to leave the room for questioning. Another officer asked a room of shirtless men, “Does anyone want to know straight up what’s going on? Is there anyone?” The room was silent for a few seconds before “Jose” returned and announced that the fraternity was holding a “Celebration of Life.”
Outside, an officer told a person who appeared to be a fraternity member that “the university has a very strict policy regarding hazing” because of the high number of hazing-related deaths across the country. The fraternity member, who identified himself as the fraternity president, admitted that pledgers were participating in a “pre-initiation ceremony” in which they were “blindfolded and toyed with.”
Social media reacts to ‘incredible video’
The body camera footage has garnered attention on social media since its release, with clips of the video going viral on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X, where it has garnered thousands of views.
Social media users called the footage “wild” and likened it to a scene from a horror movie, while others argued that boys should be allowed to be boys.
On TikTok, which has more than 1.9 million views, one user criticized the hazing incident, calling it “so stupid.”
“I always thought clouding like this was ridiculous, but now that I see the body camera footage, it looks even more ridiculous,” the user said.
Barstool Sports, a sports and pop culture blog, also posted clips of the video to its accounts across social media platforms, recording thousands of interactions.
“It’s an incredible video,” Barstool Sports’ Jack Mack said on TikTok, which has been viewed 347,000 times, later adding, “Unfortunately for the fraternity, they got kicked off campus for four years and suspended from the university for four years. We don’t know if they’ll ever be allowed back…I know fraternity is a little touchy for some people, but sometimes you just have to let the boys be boys.”
What did the investigation find?
The University of Iowa found the fraternity violated its institutional property hazing and fraud policy and that members failed to respond to the investigation. The national fraternity called the University of Iowa’s investigation “unjustified” and said the university instituted a “one-strike” policy specifically for Alpha Delta Phi in 2023.
According to the fraternity’s appeal to the University of Iowa Office of Student Responsibility, the national Alpha Delta Phi office concluded after its own investigation that two fraternity members were “solely responsible.”
The national secretariat admitted that the members organized the hazing and said it proceeded without the consent of “branch leaders.” Their membership was revoked.
“Through their personal induction documents, Alpha Delta Phi states that these two individuals conceived and carried out this event, acting outside of the instructions of chapter leadership and the official plan for the initiation event,” Alpha Delta Phi said in its appeal. “Their actions are unfortunate and detrimental to the chapter.”.”
The names of fraternity members were redacted in several documents obtained and reviewed by Iowa City Reporters.
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity is active on Instagram, but university says group is still inactive
Iowa Alpha Delta Phi’s Instagram page appears to be continuing some fraternity activities. In a video posted in August 2025, two members give viewers a tour of the house, which is captured on body camera footage. The area seen in the clip, packed with shirtless young men, has been identified as a “storage room.”
The most recent Instagram post, shared on Feb. 18, includes six different group photos of fraternity members with the caption, “Brotherhood stays strong.”
The University of Iowa has posted the fraternity’s current suspension period online, with the earliest return date listed as July 1, 2029.
A University of Iowa spokesperson said Wednesday, Feb. 18, that the fraternity is currently “suspended and unrecognized” and the university is “not providing any support to the (Alpha Delta Phi) organization.”
