Keeping Iowans Safe Starts With Better Pay for Iowa's Police Officers and Firefighters

By Nate Willems — originally published as a guest column in the Des Moines Register

I've spent my career helping hard-working Iowa workers get the pay they have earned but denied to them by their employer. Those Iowans keep our hospitals open, our roads paved, and our grocery shelves stocked.

And in the case of Iowa law enforcement officers, fair pay is what helps them keep our communities safe.

There is a reason police and firefighter unions are kept separate in Iowa law from every other public union. The work is dangerous and demanding. The police officer or state trooper pulling over a car on Highway 30 at 2:00 a.m. does not know what is in the car. The firefighter going into a structure fire does not know what is on the other side of the door.

This is not a Democratic position or a Republican position. It is simply the position that the men and women who run toward danger should be paid like it.

I have represented police officers in contract fights from across the state. Small towns across Iowa are losing officers to bigger cities and to states paying better. That is bad for the officers and bad for public safety.

Take the officers of the Carter Lake Police Department, who I represented as a labor attorney. Located on Iowa's western border, for years Carter Lake police had been competing with Omaha to attract new officers and pay competitive salaries. But for a smaller town like Carter Lake, it was a hard bargain to drive.

In the fall of 2023, the Carter Lake police union and the city met four times to bargain a new contract. They struck a deal, but shortly after the city tried to back out. I represented the Carter Lake police officers as they proceeded to arbitration, and won. As a result of that victory, new hires received 12 percent raises and the most experienced officers got even more. Today, Carter Lake is now better positioned to attract highly qualified officers that will make the city safer. It was reported that this was the largest collectively bargained wage increase in Iowa history.

I am proud of securing that victory for the men and women of the Carter Lake Police Department, but the truth is that law enforcement officers in smaller cities and towns across Iowa are still facing the same challenges with filling positions and high staff turnover. I have represented sheriff's deputies and jailers whose supervisors were denied reasonable health care benefits.

There is more work to do. Iowa's volunteer fire departments are stretched. Rural sheriff's departments struggle to fill positions. Mental health calls are eating up patrol time that small departments do not have. Officers and deputies who suffer line-of-duty injuries, including the PTSD that comes with the work, too often run into the same workers' compensation wall any other injured Iowan runs into. I have written before about that wall, and I have spent years in courtrooms tearing pieces of it down.

Now, I'm running for attorney general because I believe the laws on our books can do more than they are doing. We need an attorney general who will fight for working Iowans, secure justice for crime victims, and support the people who put on a uniform and answer the call.

That also means making sure our prosecutors have what they need to put violent offenders behind bars — including the capacity to quickly and thoroughly test forensic evidence. And it means standing behind the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners who do some of the hardest work in this state, sitting with victims through the worst moments of their lives and building the cases that lead to convictions.

Iowa's attorney general should be the state's strongest advocate for the people who serve and the people they protect. I have been doing that work for twenty years. Now I'm asking to do it from the AG's office.

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