moldyoldy

Brookside, Alabama’s population is barely 1,200 people, but officials decided that what the town really needed was more police. Now, fines and forfeitures make up half of the town’s income in a rampant case of policing for profit, Alabama news site AL.com reports.

The numbers are shocking. Only 55 nonviolent crimes were reported in the seven-year period between 2011 and 2018. And yet in 2018, the police force was expanded from one full-time police officer to eight full-time officers and several part-timers. From the article:

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.

...

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.

A town with just 6.3 miles of roads saw officers patrol 114,438 miles in 2020. And those patrols resulted in stops that residents have often found shocking. There’s the grandmother who’s suing the city alleging that she was stopped after officers claimed she flashed her headlights to warn other cars that they were nearby. Or there’s another resident who was one of 75 people that were given a ticket for simply using the left lane on the interstate. The city is in the business of screwing over its residents. And the mayor doesn’t seem to care that people are complaining:

Mayor Bryan dismissed the complaints of those who must appear in court. “Everybody’s got a story,” he said. “And 99% of them are lying.”

Residents are hoping something can be done about the situation soon. The sheriff for Brookside’s Jefferson Count, Mark Pettway, thinks everything that’s going on will eventually attract the attention of the federal government:

I think it’s one of those situations … that could possibly bring in the feds with some oversight,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they opened up an investigation. You can’t do what’s going on over there.

It’s a wild case of for-profit overpolicing in a tiny town with a population whose median income is well below state average — a town that survives in large part due to tax revenue from the local Dollar General. It’s not known for havinv a lot of crime. Though it already brought in a pretty high percentage of its local revenue from fines and forfeitures, even before the policing crisis started.

Here’s hoping Pettway is right and the federal government starts paying attention to Brookside, Alabama.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/this-tiny-alabama-town-of-1-200-has-been-overrun-by-out-out-of-control-police/ar-AASXZaj?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

In Texas, policing for profit is illegal. I suspect it is in Alabama as well. Bring in the federal government??? What a load of nonsense. The STATE needs to do its job. There is NOTHING in the Constitution that gives the feds jurisdiction, is there? See if you can find it. While you are at it, see if they can be brought in to make my neighbor mow his lawn....it's an eyesore, and should be a felony. Also, the servers at McDonalds do not always put the drink lids on tight enough. Anybody else have problems they want the federal government to "pay attention" to?

moldyoldy

Perhaps they can look into your rancid brain.

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

Now, now, Moldy! You haven't had time to properly review the Constitution. You should give it due attention and really LOOK HARD for those phrases giving the Brandon Administration the authority to dictate to local small towns. Have you checked out all the Amendments? Maybe it's included along with something else, kinda like the right to an abortion is assumed to be part of the right to privacy that is assumed to be somewhere in the Bill of Rights. Somewhere.
Keep looking. All of us are waiting to see your conclusions.

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

Please cease giving them more ideas. States Rights are already an almost extinct species.

moldyoldy

The next step in this for profit policing .

https://ij.org/report/policing-for-profit-3/

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

I say sic em on the drinking lids problem.. that truly POs me..

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

One of the major problems with state rights is that it makes for so much corruption from the struggling poor states.. like all those who backed to former occupant in his desire to take over the nation..

A unified front via the federal forces makes it less difficult to keep the criminals under control..

moldyoldy

I didn’t offer an opinion on this subject, but I thought there would be some interesting dialogue. I was wrong.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

I agree with you that this is wrong on so many levels. I also agree with Randy that this is a state problem, not a federal one. The Federal Government can't get every cat out of every tree, so per the Constitution, states, and localities, under State Constitutions are responsible.
We have a little bitty town here called Estelline, which is on highway 287. Can't guess the population, but it's tiny, and on a major highway. It was a famous speed trap because of the location of the signs. They were busted by the state, and their police force disbanded, and charged for their activity by the state.

Lemme go soak in the tub, and I'll see if I can find a link.
Bad day for Archie. I'm too damn old to be slipping on ice, and bouncing down brick stairs on my back.

moldyoldy

A shot of moonshine should help.
I forgot about those speed traps where the speed limit suddenly drops for no reason.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Nah. A soak in a hot tub with Epsom salts, a good meal, a few beers, and 77,000 mil. of ibuprofen, and I'll wake up sore as hell. But, I have 3 days off to recover, and once the bruises start showing, maybe I can milk a tad of sympathetic lazy time out of Mrs. B. Doubt it......

Here's one of many I found on that town. I can think of a few others from my driving the road days around here too. It's bullshit.

https://www.thenewspaper.com/news/44/4469.asp

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Uff-Da, that hurts just reading about.. take a looonnnnggg bath.. and lots of the good stuff...

moldyoldy

A case of justice fought for and received. There should be some defense for speed traps like that.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

It was classic, Permi! Just like you see on the videos. First foot hits the step going down, then donk, donk, donk, donk all the way to the bottom.

It sucked....