Investigative Report: Small Alabama Town's Police force Looks and Operates Like an Armed Gang. 50% of Towns Budget Comes From Fines and Police Civil Forfeiters

[CoffeeTiger 5,099]

Interesting Report and I encourage you to read the entire thing. This town and police force is nothing more than a street gang abusing authority to squeeze money out of citizens pockets in order to enrich the police department and city administration. 

 

Hopefully this story will gain the attention of the big dogs and Federal investigators get involved to stop this. Also LOL at a town of 1,000 people having a full blown armored riot vehicle....they even named one of their  drug dogs ' K9-Cash'  Its just so blatantly corrupt and illegal I hope people go to jail for this. Unmarked, tinted police cars, wearing dark, unmarked uniforms, signing their tickets with 'codenames' calling themselves "Agents"... its incredible  Though I'm sure there are a lot more small towns and police departments around the nation that operate in the same matter. 

 

 

https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/police-in-this-tiny-alabama-town-suck-drivers-into-legal-black-hole.html?utm_source=reddit.com

Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city’s total income.

And the police chief has called for more.

The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 – none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.

...

Police stops soared between 2018 and 2020. Fines and forfeitures – seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things – doubled from 2018 to 2019. In 2020 they came to $610,000. That’s 49% of the small town’s skyrocketing revenue.

By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 – each carrying fines. That’s a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town.

 

Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones, who spearheaded the change and grew the police department tenfold, at least, calls the town’s policing “a positive story.” Mayor Mike Bryan – a former councilman who assumed his position last year after the death of the previous mayor – sits and nods in agreement.

Jones said crime when he took over was higher than it appeared from numbers the town reported to the state. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s department for service.

He said he’d like to see even more growth in revenue from fines and forfeitures.

“I see a 600% increase – that’s a failure. If you had more officers and more productivity you’d have more,” Jones said. “I think it could be more.”

When Jones was hired as chief in 2018, he was the only full-time police officer, he said in sworn testimony for a lawsuit filed against him and the city. By last summer, he said in a deposition, Brookside had hired eight additional full-time officers and several part-timers.

Asked in December how many officers were on staff, he refused to say, citing “security” concerns, though police staff sizes are reported regularly to the government for public consumption.

A department of nine officers in a 1,253-person town is far larger than average. Across the country, the average size of a force is one officer for every 588 residents, according to a Governing Magazine study that examined federal statistics.

Last year, based on Jones’ testimony, Brookside had at least one officer for every 144 residents.

By 2020 officers in the sleepy town were undergoing SWAT training and dressing in riot gear, even as the city continued with only a volunteer fire department. It parked a riot control vehicle — townspeople call it a tank — outside the municipal complex and community center. Traffic tickets, and criminalizing those who passed through, became the city’s leading industry.

....

As more tickets brought in more money, the town began to spend much more. From 2018 to 2020, spending on police rose from $79,000 to $524,000, a 560% increase. The town’s administrative expenditures rose 40% and overall spending jumped 112%, from $553,000 in 2018 to $1.2 million in 2020.

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[McLoofus 35,182]

30 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Though I'm sure there are a lot more small towns and police departments around the nation that operate in the same matter. 

I've even seen it on a small scale. Got pulled over in a speed trap town in North Alabama. Big whoop. Except- for speeding, because I didn't immediately slow down to the lowered speed limit from the previous speed limit as soon as I passed the sign- I had 3 or 4 squad cars surrounding me very shortly after I'd been pulled over, lights on, every officer out of their car shining flashlights in my car, I was made to get out and put my hands on the hood, all of it. They were determined to get me for something more than the speeding, and I'm guessing I was extra tasty because I was alone. And I was a perfectly sober, perfectly compliant white dude. I can't imagine what a black person would have gone through in that situation. 

And of course I had to go back to whatever ****hole redneck backwater town that was to pay the fine in court. Glad I had the money to pay it. 

Anyway, I read this article earlier and John Archibald is a damned treasure in that state. I hope some people go down hard for this crap and, yes, I hope it brings attention also to all the other towns where this stuff goes on. 

[wdefromtx 3,159]

41 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Interesting Report and I encourage you to read the entire thing. This town and police force is nothing more than a street gang abusing authority to squeeze money out of citizens pockets in order to enrich the police department and city administration. 

 

Hopefully this story will gain the attention of the big dogs and Federal investigators get involved to stop this. Also LOL at a town of 1,000 people having a full blown armored riot vehicle....they even named one of their  drug dogs ' K9-Cash'  Its just so blatantly corrupt and illegal I hope people go to jail for this. Unmarked, tinted police cars, wearing dark, unmarked uniforms, signing their tickets with 'codenames' calling themselves "Agents"... its incredible  Though I'm sure there are a lot more small towns and police departments around the nation that operate in the same matter. 

 

 

https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/police-in-this-tiny-alabama-town-suck-drivers-into-legal-black-hole.html?utm_source=reddit.com

Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city’s total income.

And the police chief has called for more.

The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 – none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.

...

Police stops soared between 2018 and 2020. Fines and forfeitures – seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things – doubled from 2018 to 2019. In 2020 they came to $610,000. That’s 49% of the small town’s skyrocketing revenue.

By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 – each carrying fines. That’s a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town.

 

Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones, who spearheaded the change and grew the police department tenfold, at least, calls the town’s policing “a positive story.” Mayor Mike Bryan – a former councilman who assumed his position last year after the death of the previous mayor – sits and nods in agreement.

Jones said crime when he took over was higher than it appeared from numbers the town reported to the state. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s department for service.

He said he’d like to see even more growth in revenue from fines and forfeitures.

“I see a 600% increase – that’s a failure. If you had more officers and more productivity you’d have more,” Jones said. “I think it could be more.”

When Jones was hired as chief in 2018, he was the only full-time police officer, he said in sworn testimony for a lawsuit filed against him and the city. By last summer, he said in a deposition, Brookside had hired eight additional full-time officers and several part-timers.

Asked in December how many officers were on staff, he refused to say, citing “security” concerns, though police staff sizes are reported regularly to the government for public consumption.

A department of nine officers in a 1,253-person town is far larger than average. Across the country, the average size of a force is one officer for every 588 residents, according to a Governing Magazine study that examined federal statistics.

Last year, based on Jones’ testimony, Brookside had at least one officer for every 144 residents.

By 2020 officers in the sleepy town were undergoing SWAT training and dressing in riot gear, even as the city continued with only a volunteer fire department. It parked a riot control vehicle — townspeople call it a tank — outside the municipal complex and community center. Traffic tickets, and criminalizing those who passed through, became the city’s leading industry.

....

As more tickets brought in more money, the town began to spend much more. From 2018 to 2020, spending on police rose from $79,000 to $524,000, a 560% increase. The town’s administrative expenditures rose 40% and overall spending jumped 112%, from $553,000 in 2018 to $1.2 million in 2020.

 

And just about all the officers in these small towns have a Napoleon Complex. 

[homersapien 11,362]

Reminds me of Douglasville, GA back in the day.

[DKW 86 7,419]

Killen, Leighton, Courtland in N Al are pretty much as described.

[CoffeeTiger 5,099]

The towns police chief just resigned https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/brookside-police-chief-mike-jones-resigns-after-alcom-report-on-traffic-trap.html 

 

Funny how the police chief is discovered bragging/threatening? another person on Facebbok with this: 

“I strongly suggest you take the time to research the truth of the story before posting comments,” he messaged on Facebook to Senate candidate Lisa Ward after she shared a link to the story.

 

 

“Especially if you expect to run for public office on the State of Alabama. I am the Chief of Police of this department. I am a highly awarded and decorated 27 year State of Alabama law enforcement veteran choosing to continue serving in public office. I also serve on the AACOP executive board of Directors as the Emergency Response Committee Chairman with the Alabama Association of Chief’s of Police as well as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, & FBI LEEDA.”

 

Great....good to know such terrible policing practices are ingrained so heavily into AL State police organizations. ...that doesn't reflect well on him or the organizations he leads or is apart of

Edited January 25, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[cole256 17,043]

I expected to see Florence, Sheffield, Killen, tuscumbia, muscle shoals, moulton, Cullman, Russellville Cherokee, town Creek, or Courtland.

Any of these towns could have fallen under this

[DKW 86 7,419]

6 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I expected to see Florence, Sheffield, Killen, tuscumbia, muscle shoals, moulton, Cullman, Russellville Cherokee, town Creek, or Courtland.

Any of these towns could have fallen under this

Ditto...

[SaltyTiger 7,789]

Harpersville area along 280 was noted for ticketing obvious Auburn fans or Lee county plates on iron bowl weekend when that game was in B’ham. Years that we won better off driving back 65 to Montgomery.