Mayor Bryan announced he had pulled police officers from Interstate 22 as the Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission and the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts swooped in for audits. Perez is Hispanic, and his passenger was a Brookside resident, also Hispanic, who didnt have her purse with her, Perez said. Theres no way I was going to run that stop sign.. Lawyers for eight people who say they were wronged by Brookside police on Wednesday filed an amended complaint in Alabama, arguing the town, the towing company it used to seize vehicles, and 23 . He rolled down his window and said, Im glad you havent needed me lately.. And the town bought in. Arrest powers are not confined to city limits or jurisdictional boundaries except within the State of Alabama.. 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. On July 10th, 2019, 16 days after she paid her ticket, her phone rang. In 2020, she had explained her case this way to the AGs office: The person threatened me with an arrest if I did not take down my Facebook pictures and posts of their police officers, stop sending emails to the local politicians, as well as others, and show them (Brookside police) that I understand law enforcement practices.. Brookside Police Department in Brookside, Alabama, get driving directions from your location, Birmingham Police Department - North Precinct, Department Of Public Safety Highway Patrol Post - Birmingham, Jefferson County Pistol Permits & Gun Licenses, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Most Wanted Sex Offenders, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Offender Search, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Website, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Website (Alabama), Brookside public safety & filing complaints, Brookside Police Department jobs and employment. The law we enacted will prevent abuses like those in Brookside from being repeated elsewhere in Alabama, said Lt. Gov. She paid the $160 ticket and began to make her case through emails to public officials, complaints, a television interview and elsewhere. A court worker told her she would have to plead guilty or go to driving school. Police gave him a ticket for running a stop sign, which he disputed. The accounts told to AL.com detail harassment and intimidation. In February, Brookside even suspended court. Law-abiding citizens should not fall prey to a renegade police department that is accountable to no one.. The Planning Jurisdictions and City/Town Limits in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. It was only after she went to court six weeks later that she learned where the car was impounded. She refused. Over the past few years there has been a sharp rise in the number of Brookside traffic tickets. Popularity:#11 of 45 Police Departments in Jefferson County#69 of 565 Police Departments in Alabama#2,237 in Police Departments. It was more than the car was worth in fines, she said. People stopped by Brookside police more than a mile and half outside the town limits. Advocates for justice reform, cops in other jurisdictions, even Jefferson Countys top law enforcement officials, have begun to question the towns tactics, and its need for an expanding force. Brookside has 1,253 people, according to the most recent census. Read more stories from our Banking on Crime series: If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Traffic tickets increased more than 600 percent in a single year, arrests almost 450 percent. Another, the second-leading ticket-giver between 2018 and 2020, according to records filed in a lawsuit against the town, had been ticketed eight times by other agencies for speeding, four times for driving with no seat belt, twice for driving without insurance, twice for driving without a visible tag, and once this one years ago for driving on a suspended license. A revenue strategy: tickets, tows and arrests. All rights reserved (About Us). Yet the town with no traffic lights collected $487 in fines and forfeitures in 2020 for every man, woman and child, though many of those fined were merely passing by on I-22. It did not feature a breakout of the police department. , threats, embarrassing social media posts and even blue-light traffic stops. Ramon Perez showed up for court in December ready to fight traffic citations he got in Brookside. A California man is facing multiple felony charges in Alabama after allegedly kidnapping a woman at knifepoint and holding her hostage in Brookside on Sunday.The Brookside Police Department said officers responded to a report of a woman being kidnapped by a man in driving a white van around 2:45 p.m. on Brookside Coalburg Road. Jones put out word that Brookside was hiring officers and dispatchers for the new department, which he cast as an interstate drug unit. The law, according to Hudgens, was what Mike Jones said it was. By Josh Gauntt. And I dont have to have a license for it to sit in the yard. Published: Mar. (Fiscal Year Oct- Sept) Year #Tickets . Name Brookside Police Department Address 208 Main Street Brookside, Alabama, 35036 Phone 205-674-9275 Fax 205-674-9547 Brookside town clerk Debbie Keedy and Mayor Mike Bryan at a 2022 town council meeting. Eventually she was given an inhaler and treated by paramedics. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. At least three bills are now before the Legislature that would affect those cities. We were not trained whatsoever, she said. BROOKSIDE, Ala. After a tumultuous few weeks for the city of Brookside, including the resignation of police Chief Mike Jones, more allegations were brought to light against the city's police department on Thursday. In December the mayor provided AL.com a budget document, based on previous years audits. she added. Lawyers for eight people argued this month in a federal lawsuit that Brookside and Jetts Towing engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity. The lawyers cited federal anti-corruption RICO statutes and the Hobbs Act. Olive. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). Baggett was driving on a suspended license, though the suspension had ended and she hadnt had the money to have it reinstated. Circuit Judge Shanta Craig Owens threw out another 41 cases on appeal from Brookside involving more than a dozen people, calling the evidence garbage. She said she would not consider a case credible if the only witness was a Brookside police officer. Brookside is the "the wild, Wild West," one state lawmaker said after its income from traffic fines and forfeitures reportedly rose 640 percent in 2 years. Vincent Witt and his sister, Tareya, who said the small police department fabricated charges against them and listed them as fugitives because Witt complained about an officers racist remark. The man is still afraid of retaliation, and asked for anonymity. The primary coordinates for Brookside Police Department places it within the AL 35214 ZIP Code delivery area.. Maps, Driving Directions & Local Area Information Traffic tickets, and criminalizing those who passed through, became the citys leading industry. She argued that she only drove in the left lane to pass other vehicles, and her ticket on May 26, 2019 came five months before Alabamas Anti-Road Rage Act, a law making it illegal to drive in the left lane of an interstate for more than a mile and a half, went into effect. Investigators stored them as evidence, diapers and all, in a closet in the lieutenants office. While tiny Brookside was not alone in taking such equipment and weaponry, it was particularly aggressive. Sarathy Jones said the issues in Brookside should be a warning for towns and small cities to examine their revenue sources and ensure their local governments aren't turning to law enforcement as moneymaking arms. Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality. Defendants must pay thousands in fines and fees or pay for costly appeals to state court and poorer residents or passersby fall into patterns of debt they cannot easily escape. People who were stopped by Brookside police and fined more than the state allows. Will Ainsworth, have said Brookside and towns that use overly aggressive policing to fill their coffers must change. He promised benefits and a place to land for police who had left other agencies but hoped to keep their law enforcement certification current. People abused by small town's "policing for profit" file class action seeking accountability. Lawyers for eight people who say they were wronged by Brookside police on Wednesday filed an amended complaint in Alabama, arguing the town, the towing company it used to seize vehicles, and 23 current and former police officers conspired to take money and property from drivers. Its not about making a dollar, Jones said. She has watched and documented stops there. A judge set Halls fines at $6,000, and he had to post $12,000 bond while he appealed the case, an amount Weinberg considered excessive, and one that would prevent defendants without money or support from arguing their cases in state court. Brookside, Ala., may only have 10 kilometres of roads, one store and a volunteer fire department, but its police force has an armoured truck; two police dogs; nine unmarked vehicles, seven of . Brookside, just north of Birmingham, already faces at least 10 lawsuits about its policing. BROOKSIDE, Ala. Tuesday's town hall called to discuss issues involving the Brookside Police Department is already causing change to happen.Many of the complaints regarding how police enforced traffic stops centered around officers pulling people over outside their jurisdiction and even police jurisdiction signs posted beyond city limits. Brookside has operated its police and court system with the primary objective of obtaining revenue from motorists traveling on or near Interstate-22, Harris lawyers wrote in a suit filed last year. Which is another problem altogether, Sheriff Pettway said. 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. While police filled the cells by citing the letter of the law to drivers, they did not apply that standard to themselves. He agreed to represent his niece in her traffic case. At the time, Jones was still president of the Helena City Council, though it was reported he later stopped attending meetings when his private security business began to struggle. She said she tried to record the interaction after three officers in two vehicles pulled her car over, but an officer with a valknot symbol a Norse sign sometimes appropriated by white supremacists on a ring and one of his gun clips confiscated her phone. Another Brookside officer had been indicted for the strangulation of his girlfriend in 2019, though that case was dismissed when the woman failed to show up for court. This month the town judge, Jim Wooten, announced he would step aside and recuse himself from all pending cases. II. If you had more officers and more productivity youd have more, Jones said. The town now faces at least 13 suits or one for every 96 residents. But an officer grabbed the phone and threw it to the ground, breaking it, the lawsuit says. Katie Baggett moved to Brookside in December 2020. She was not speeding, or breaking the law, she argued in the suit. The money Hudgens spoke of was substantial. I just knew that I did not want to be part of a workplace that did such low-down things, she said. The complaint alleges numerous constitutional violations, and we believe the citizens need to be protected from illegal actions by the Town of Brookside.. Mayor Bryan dismissed the complaints of those who must appear in court. Chana Hodges handles billing at a mom-and-pop medical supply store in nearby Fultondale, Ala. She recounts a day in 2020 when her boss walked to the cubicle and told her a police officer was looking for her. This story was published with the support of a grant from Columbia Universitys Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights. And the only way theyd be able to get out of jail is if they accepted Christ. Time after time they say they were pulled over by multiple officers in multiple vehicles for minor charges such as expired tag or following too closely, that they were searched, towed, and forced to pay large fines for violations many say they did not commit. Baggett and the officers went back to look at the tag light, and it worked. The primary function of the Police Department is deterring crime, stopping crimes in progress, investigating crimes, and serving as first responders for emergencies and situations that threaten public safety. Top FB Transfers; Latest FB Transfers; By Position FB Transfers; NCAA FB (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. But Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared after that, and the towns law-enforcement goals and its reputation changed. And while sitting in court I heard that half the court was also stopped for the same thing.. The town collected surplus valued at $760,846, more than accepted by Birmingham or Montgomery, and among the highest totals in Alabama. We are not safer because of it.. At a Feb. 1 town hall meeting near Brookside, residents and drivers told vivid stories of police abuses and more meanness and called for investigations, restitution and even dissolution of the police force and the town itself. Savelle had a history of trouble. BROOKSIDE, Ala. (WBRC) - A new audit of the town of Brookside released by the Alabama Dept. But he also worries for relatives and employees who live in Brookside. She had an asthma attack and a panic attack, but when she knocked on the door to alert a guard, a jailer said if she continued to knock she would be charged with attempting to escape. It showed police in 2020 patrolled 114,438 miles in the 6.3-mile town and issued more than 3,000 citations a 692% increase from 2018. Arrests on Brookside warrants went from zero to 243 in the span of two years, according to statistics Chief Jones presented to the council. The office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, declined to comment Friday about the traffic stops in Brookside. Though Alabama has dozens of towns that treat drivers like ATMs, the new laws were mainly prompted by a multi-part investigation by AL.com into Brookside, a town with fewer than 1,300 residents . An investigation into a small-town police force's use of fines and civil forfeitures has revealed that cops in Brookside, Alabama have taken marijuana prohibition to a new level, with multiple . she said. He had past drug and alcohol charges, a DUI and an arrest for public lewdness, according to police records. "Even if you legitimately stop someone because they need a light on their car fixed, if you give them a ticket, how does that meet the goal that a person's car be made safer?" Some residents worried the growing fleet of military equipment lined up outside town hall sent an unwelcoming message. The Town of Brookside released this statement: To investigate and address the issues raised by the recent news accounts of our Police Department, on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, the Town of Brookside requested the Alabama Peace Officers' Standards and Training Commission (APOSTC) perform a compliance audit of the Brookside Police Department . Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brooksides finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. And the police chief has called for more. The town's median household income is less than $40,000, according to demographic data. state-disbursed federal grant money to lure new hires with thousands of hours of overtime, told AL.com when first asked about aggressive policing, Jim Wooten, announced he would step aside and recuse himself, a Feb. 1 town hall meeting near Brookside, federal anti-corruption RICO statutes and the Hobbs Act, that bars municipalities from using fines and traffic fees to supply more than 10 percent of their budgets, Danny Carr asked judges to drop 69 felony drug, Circuit Judge Shanta Craig Owens threw out another 41 cases, Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. "This city is a ticking, ticking time bomb waiting to explode," state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who has called for other town officials to resign, told . The town survives on the fringes of Birmingham with tax revenue from the Dollar General, which forms the totality of its commercial district. It comes in the wake of the policing controversy in Brookside. We said we couldnt see it from 50 feet away.. Audits by Philip Morgan & Co., covering at least five consecutive years, pointed out as a shortcoming that the town did not have a budget or a policy of adopting one annually. Jones was the highest earning officer before his resignation, at $16 an hour, not counting overtime. Lawyer Martin Weinberg had a client in Brookside, a young man named Thomas Hall, who was stopped for speeding and found with a small amount of marijuana. News Police misconduct. wind speeds 261-318 mph) tornado 4.4 miles away from the Brookside town center killed 32 people and injured 259 people and caused $200 million in damages.. On 4/4/1977, a category F5 tornado 7.8 miles away from .