Attorney General makes stop on Marengo

MARENGO — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird stopped in Marengo on her way to the Iowa Police Chiefs Conference in Coralville last month.

The stop, during which Bird visited Compass Memorial Healthcare, was part of a 99-county tour.

Bird, from Dexter, is visiting every Iowa county “to make sure I’m doing a good job as attorney general in every county,” she said.

“I think health care is a really important part of every community,” said Bird. Rural healthcare and the opioid problem has a lot to do with criminal justice.

Rural hospitals are all different, said Bird, but many are looking for pain relievers other than opioids. They also look for help from the state with mental health issues.

Mental health and substance abuse are always an issue, in both large and small counties, said Bird. The State is still getting feedback from counties about how the new mental health districts are going to work, she said.

“We provide the legal advice to all agencies in State government,” said Bird, such as Health and Human Services. But her office also helps counties find resources.

“We work with all the prosecutors on the training,” Bird said, and her office helps newer county attorneys with legal issues.

Her office trains county attorneys and handles the appeals of all their cases. The office will help counties with murder and sex abuse trials. Most counties have only one attorney, said Bird, the former Guthrie County attorney.

The state can give them a second, Bird said.

Bird was elected State Attorney General — the first Republican to hold the office since 1979 — in November 2022. “I just want to do my best to serve, and I really care about criminal justice and supporting our law enforcement,” she said.

“One of the things that makes Iowa a great place to live … is that we are safe communities,” Bird said. She wants to keep it that way.

“We do see an increase in substance abuse,” Bird said, and that is the root of a lot of other criminal activity seen in the state.

With the abuse of certain drugs, like methamphetamine, people become violent, she said. That can result in domestic abuse and exposing their families to dangerous people.

Bird can also propose solutions to the legislature, which she’s done. The state has increased penalties for sex trafficking and allows murder charges to be filed against the supplier of drugs if the drugs are used in an overdose death.

Bird would like the legislature to increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement officers, firefighters and jail staff, she said. The state has seen in increase in assaults against law enforcement, and she takes that seriously.

“People are being assaulted because of their jobs,” Bird said.

Bird has increased the number of prosecutors in her office by three and plans to add two or three more as her budget allows. That will make more prosecutors available for counties to use when they need help.

Bird is also working on establishing a cold case division, something Iowa has needed for a long time. Cold cases are hard to solve, but the State shouldn’t stop trying, Bird said.

“No one should get away with murder.”

Bird was raised and home-schooled on an Iowa farm. She graduated from Drake University and received her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. She and her husband Bob live on a farm in rural Dexter with their son.