Harris lawyers contend she was taken to the Brookside jail, strip-searched, and told she could be jailed up to two days. So he quit, after about a year on the job. A year in Brookside is a pretty long time. All rights reserved (About Us). This month the town judge, Jim Wooten, announced he would step aside and recuse himself from all pending cases. 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. The courtroom and the parking lot are packed with people. Total town income more than doubled from 2018 to 2020 from $582,000 to more than $1.2 million as fines and forfeitures rose 640%. Third party advertisements support hosting, listing verification, updates, and site maintenance. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. For most of the past decade it saw little crimeonly 55 . Its my understanding that a guy can go out there and I mean, he can fall into a black hole, Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr said of drivers getting entangled financially. Fairness and real justice, I believe, is something people are looking for when it comes to law enforcement. Information found on CountyOffice.org is strictly for informational purposes and does not construe legal, financial or medical advice. 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. Jones blamed the lawsuits on ambulance-chasing attorneys.. (WBRC) The city now announcing several steps to reform the police department. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The Alabama House passed a bill that would make it illegal to move police jurisdiction signs. JURISDICTION AND VENUE 3. Brookside has 1,253 people, according to the most recent census. RELATED: How government reliance on fines and fees cripples families. Fines and forfeitures made up 49 percent of the town revenue, and most of it went right back to the police and courts. Police gave him a ticket for running a stop sign, which he disputed. (Fiscal Year Oct- Sept) Year #Tickets . Government websites often end in .gov or .mil. He promised benefits and a place to land for police who had left other agencies but hoped to keep their law enforcement certification current. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriffs department for service. It resulted in Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones resigning Tuesday on the same day Alabama Lt. Gov. What I had watched in court with the use of this particular charge, I mean, just to be quite frank, it offended me that a court would act that way and that a city would act that way toward people who really dont have that kind of money, he testified. Residents like Price and her neighbor Bobbie Pickle bristled when Jones began walking through backyards and into carports, posting big orange stickers on cars or boats without current tags, telling people their property would be towed. 2022-26 Ord 2023-05 Bus. The town became the poster child for policing for profit when AL.com published a series of revelations Jan. 19. The Brookside police staff, based on this data, came to one officer for every 84 residents in January. Brumlow pleaded not guilty, and had to go to court over and over again as the case was postponed. Nationally, the average size of a force is one officer for every 588 residents, according to a Governing Magazine study that relied on federal statistics. You know, weve had a lot of issues with Brookside.. Although the town has no towing contract, it had a no-bid relationship with Jetts, a state audit described. James Sebestain Bo Savelle III (Photo courtesy of Hoover Police). Yet the Brookside stories come at an alarming rate. Its a former mining town, its population about the same as it was a decade ago. BROOKSIDE, Ala. (WBRC) - A new audit of the town of Brookside released by the Alabama Dept. In 2018 total revenue for the town of Brookside was $586,000. Officers said they stopped her because the tag light on her Honda Odyssey was not visible from 50 feet away. Officers appeared to approach drivers with the presumption that they were guilty of something, many drivers would later say. By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway said the same. Court is now set to resume this Thursday. But in Brookside, Alabama, a top-down scheme pushed by its police chief, mayor and council has . Privacy Policy She has watched and documented stops there. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. 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. By 2020 due almost entirely to aggressive policing it rose to $1.2 million. There were two cars and one SUV that surrounded my car and police were everywhere, she wrote. On the other end was a caller IDd as coming from the Brookside Town Hall, she said. The audits show, however, how the town came to depend on the ticket money. He reported that his Police Chief was mad.. According to AL.com's investigation, Jones, who was hired in 2018, built a police department of 10 or more full-time and part-time officers to patrol Brookside's 6 miles of roads and 1 mile . And its not an idle threat. Police must direct traffic before the 1 p.m. court session starts. Thats 49% of the small towns skyrocketing revenue. Traffic tickets increased more than 600 percent in a single year, arrests almost 450 percent. While police filled the cells by citing the letter of the law to drivers, they did not apply that standard to themselves. 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 . Brumlows uncle, Jeff Brumlow, is the longtime prosecutor and city attorney for the city of Alabaster, and a GOP candidate for Shelby County district judge. 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. People stand in line, waiting to get into the courtroom. He said he also represented a woman who was stopped in 2019 for driving in the left lane of I-22, which was not technically a crime, and accused police of using a "false left-lane violation" to ensnare motorists. Thats a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town. It can happen anywhere, and it should not have to happen on this scale -- with college students stranded on the side of the road, and pastors mistreated for driving nice cars, and unlabeled evidence strewn about a police station for reform to happen.. We were working under a man who used fear as a tactic to make us do what he wanted us to do, said Brandon McDonald, the first dispatcher hired after Jones arrived. AL.com in January reported how Brookside used fines and forfeitures to bring in almost half the town revenue in 2020, and how its police department grew exponentially under Chief Jones. Officers began to pick up the bags and bring them into the little town hall, said Kimberlee Hudgens, a Brookside dispatcher at the time. A dark, seemingly unmarked SUV pulled behind her, she said. 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). Police must direct traffic before the 1 p.m. court session starts. Jones is not alone in complaining about Brookside. Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones, who spearheaded the change and grew the police department tenfold, at least, calls the towns 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. Its unheard of.. 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. She insists like many others stopped by Brookside police that she did not run the stop sign at all. 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. The special report concludes with six recommendations for Brookside leaders and the Brookside Police Department. But on Wednesday morning, she said, she got a call from the Alabama Attorney Generals investigator who had worked the case after her complaint was filed in 2019. The town's median household income is less than $40,000, according to demographic data. Brookside is one tiny place that caught the brief attention of the nation and could help people understand the dangers of using law enforcement to fund governments, she said. She was not speeding, or breaking the law, she argued in the suit. And while sitting in court I heard that half the court was also stopped for the same thing.. Brookside Police Department is a cultural feature (building) in Jefferson County. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. As a single mom that really messed me up, she said. We had cameras in dispatch and there were multiple times when he would bring an inmate into his office and shut the door, she said. And theyre saying they were nowhere near Brookside.. [Montgomery, Alabama] Former Brookside Police Chief Dennis Ray McCoy, 53, of Dora, was recently convicted of several charges stemming from investigation by the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), including using his official position for personal gain, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, obtaining criminal offender record information under false pretenses, and computer tampering. She pulled to the side of the road as the SUV pulled behind her, and a wrecker simultaneously parked nearby. Police must direct traffic before the 1 p.m. court session starts. At least two others were in arrears on child support, and another had been charged with harassment, though the charges were dropped. The AGs office this week would not confirm or deny to AL.com the existence of any case involving Brookside. Michelle Jones made an official complaint to the Alabama Attorney's General's office three years ago, arguing that Brookside police stopped her out of jurisdiction, issued a bogus citation and . Police Chief Mike Jones has since resigned, Lt. Gov. The town collected surplus valued at $760,846, more than accepted by Birmingham or Montgomery, and among the highest totals in Alabama. However, an initial review of the complaint reveals that any allegations of conspiracy are false and without merit and the Town vehemently denies such allegations.. Between April 2018 and June 2020, they handed out 406 of those tickets, or about 15 a month, according to documents filed in the lawsuit. Military vehicles used by the Brookside Police Dept. We dont care about tickets, Jones said. (Photographerlondon / Dreamstime.com) Brookside, Alabama, has a population of less than 1,500 people. The examiners sharp report was released this month, outlining missing guns, poor financial practices and shoddy storage of evidence, including an unmarked trash bag filled with prescription medicines that did not seem to be associated with any particular case. In less than three months Brookside separately pulled over both her and her housemate and impounded both their vehicles. We respect the process and its outcomes., Montague Minnifield talks passionately about his experience with Brookside Police. What I noticed the pattern to be among us is this: If you are in the car by yourself, youre gonna get a ticket, she said. In his call to Jones this week, the investigator said he could not tell me anything because of the ongoing investigation, Jones said. 2022 Police Jurisdiction Annexations, Deannexations and Ordinances, Ords. For years, no one had heard of or cared that the town of Brookside even existed and that possibly includes a . What happened in Brookside is a lesson for all those who fail to see the signs in Brookside or elsewhere and do nothing, said Carla Crowder, the director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice. All rights reserved (About Us). When youre naive and you work with police, you assume theyre gonna do the right thing, he said. The town announced that all police cars and uniforms would be clearly marked. You will not touch it.. In a statement, Brookside City Attorney Mark Parnell said that as the local prosecutor, he has "strived to ensure" only police charges with merit moved forward or were otherwise dismissed. This is at the corner of Roberta Road and Mulberry Road, which is far away from their city limits.. And while many Brookside residents work across the Birmingham area the largest urban center in Alabama they enjoy the country feel of their town, the anonymity and security that used to come with it. But not in the courtroom. 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. They let her out of jail at midnight, long after her family had made bond. They were expected to keep track of real-time police calls on Excel files. Law-abiding citizens should not fall prey to a renegade police department that is accountable to no one.. Another SUV faced her, bright lights on, and yet another pulled at the rear. Investigators stored them as evidence, diapers and all, in a closet in the lieutenants office. If you have a witness with you, theyre gonna issue you a warning., I felt that basically, that this was a way for them to make money to fund their city off the backs of citizens from other areas. held the first town hall, in which 200 people gathered, Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal black hole, Pastor, sister say rogue Alabama police force sought revenge, This Alabama county fastens ankle monitors on hundreds who arent convicted of crimes, Life on an ankle monitor in Alabama: $10 a day and inevitable imperfections, Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, originally filed on behalf of Cory Thomas, are Thomas; Tinetta Jackson; Keyarah Smith; Ben Blackwell; James Donahue; Gerald Smith; Brittany Todd; and Zachary Harris. 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. Arrest Files Date Published: 03/03/2023. Locality Locality Code Boundaries Map Notice & Ordinance Item 30 Day Notice Posted ALDOR Posted Abbeville 9356 Adamsville 9130 Addison 9309 Akron 9668 Alabaster 9413 Albertville 9397 Alexander City 9358 Aliceville 9301 Allgood 9709 Altoona 9709 Andalusia 9631 Anderson 9479 Anniston 9311 Arab 9448 Ardmore 9634 Argo 9729 Ariton 9602 Arley 9642 . Seven Brookside police officers have resigned since details of the towns aggressive policing strategy gained national attention in January. And I dont have to have a license for it to sit in the yard. I was freezing.. Which is another problem altogether, Sheriff Pettway said. Eventually she was given an inhaler and treated by paramedics. Baggett asked about her vehicle on the way. Stephanie Franklin, a Jefferson County employee, told AL.com she was a passenger in a car stopped last year for an expired tag. Alabama Senate candidate Lisa Ward said ex-Chief Jones tried to intimidate her in a social media message after she shared the AL.com story on Facebook. requested an audit of Brooksides town and police force, have called for bills to help curb small-town policing, sometimes appropriated by white supremacists, in the case of Rev. 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. It was more than the car was worth in fines, she said. Katie Baggett moved to Brookside in December 2020. If the bill passes, someone could end up in jail or pay thousands in fines for moving a jurisdiction sign. The town survives on the fringes of Birmingham with tax revenue from the Dollar General, which forms the totality of its commercial district. Will Ainsworth requested a state audit, and amid calls for state and federal investigations. Please call 205-345-6600 for information regarding roads or right of way. A Peace Officer sworn in the State of Alabama can enforce the law anywhere in the State of Alabama, he wrote in an email. Its an old mining town, tucked in the hills and hollows at the southwest tip of the Appalachians. A revenue strategy: tickets, tows and arrests. It raised police officers hourly pay to $18, established a police reserve program and rescinded tax collection from areas of police jurisdiction outside the town limits which applies mainly to people in nearby Mt. I said, Where are yall taking my car? she said. BROOKSIDE, Ala. (WBRC) - House Representative Juandalynn Givan is now asking city leaders in Brookside to disband the police department. She had no preparations for such an invasive procedure. "Their whole financial existence starts to spiral, and it was all over a light on their car not working.". She thought the complaint was long forgotten or closed. originally filed on behalf of Cory Thomas, AL.com in January reported how Brookside used fines and forfeitures, Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. She wore a tank top and was denied a long-sleeved shirt. Brookside, just north of Birmingham, already faces at least 10 lawsuits about its policing. Oftentimes, a person's decision to forgo paying a fine goes deeper, Sarathy Jones said. Theres no way I was going to run that stop sign.. But his approach which posited that Brookside was dirty, unsafe and drug-infested offended other residents, who argued drugs exist everywhere. They told me they dont give blankets, she said. Over 200 people packed into the new Jefferson County Sheriffs Office Training Facility building to voice their complaints about aggressive policing by the Brookside Police Dept. He swore hed seen the cop from a distance and was careful as he braked. Jones reimagined the police department as a sort of drug task force on the corridor between Birmingham and Memphis and he was creative. Will Ainsworth requested a state audit, and amid calls for state and federal investigations. At Brookside municipal court, the courtroom and the parking lot are packed with people. But lawyers and law enforcement officers across central Alabama have raised questions about things in Brookside they say they have never otherwise come across. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Hudgens said she quit as a dispatcher because of the way the town handled and in her mind, glossed over Savelles arrest. Advertisement. It showed that total arrests custodial, misdemeanor and felony rose 1,109% from 2018 to 2020. If you drove too long in the left lane, you became an offender, though lawyers have argued the crime police often cited was not on the books. I should have brought a lawyer, but right now my time is not there, he said. It was something that I should not have been stopped for, Brumlow said in sworn testimony. A report quoted in the suit claimed she tighten (sic) arm muscles from getting handcuff (sic).. They've also been accused of using racist language in a community that is majority white, but also has a Black population of nearly 25 percent and a small but growing Latino population. The law is the law.. Hall did appeal, and a Jefferson County judge ultimately dismissed the charges. By Josh Gauntt. Katie Baggett moved to Brookside in December of 2020. She remembered being pulled over five years before. The complaint seeks to establish four classes of people who were stopped and extorted by the town of Brookside, Jetts Towing Co. or the officers. He said people have stories about their cars getting towed and being left on the side of the road, then being charged by both the town and the impound company to get their vehicles back, on top of daily storage fees. Jones testified his officers wear gray uniforms with no Brookside insignias. Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr asked judges to drop 69 felony drug charges that originated in Brookside, along with 22 associated misdemeanors, saying he did not want to be associated with a rogue police force.. (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. (Joe Songer for al.com).Joe Songer. In fact, they said in November they didnt know how that money is spent. The curious case of the financial income of the town, on the outskirts of Birmingham, exploded into a scandal following a local news report on AL.com last week. Just 50 cars were towed in 2018, but that jumped to 789 cars two years later, or an average of more than two a day. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.Six hundred forty percent.That's how much Brookside, Alabama's police increased its revenue from fines, fees and forfeitures from 2018 to 2020. If we have to come get ya, well make you famous!, When you look at their Facebook pages its almost like they are bullies. She wondered if her family was OK as she walked past coworkers and customers. For context, Birmingham city would have to more than triple the size of its force to equal a ratio of that in Brookside. Two or three days later Brookside police stopped him again. About Us Contact Us He and members of the town council complained of slow response times from the county, and of drug infestations in and around the area. McDonald attributed it to cruelty.. Shes in my sight.. Brookside, which in 2018 had one full time police officer, now parks a riot control vehicle townspeople call it a tank outside the municipal complex and community center. On July 10th, 2019, 16 days after she paid her ticket, her phone rang. They gave me a ticket for running a stop sign. 13333-A Hwy. And it broke her heart, it broke my heart.. 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. Code Amended 10/01/2022 11/26/2022 12/02/2022 Aliceville 9301 Allgood 9709 Altoona 9709 Andalusia 9631 Anderson 9479 Anniston 9311 Arab 9448 [] 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. In 2018, when the town had one full-time police officer and a few part-timers, it reported no serious crimes to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center. Johnson, though it is unclear if Brookside had a Detective Johnson. News Police misconduct. Dawson also represents Victoria Brumlow, a young woman who like hundreds more was stopped on I-22 and ticketed for driving on the left lane of the interstate. Not all of them can afford to pay their fines as he did, and some have been put on payment plans. Baggett was driving on a suspended license, though the suspension had ended and she hadnt had the money to have it reinstated. Address, Phone Number, and Fax Number for Brookside Police Department, a Police Department, at Main Street, Brookside AL. A 2019 report in Governing magazine found that fines and forfeitures account for more than 10 percent of general fund revenues for nearly 600 jurisdictions throughout the country, and in jurisdictions where fines accounted for more than 20 percent, the local median household income was less than $40,000. An official website of the Alabama State government. That document budgeted $646,620 to the police this year. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on an official government site. He quickly built a roster of officers, some with questionable pasts that made them more loyal, adding new staff every quarter until the force eventually topped out at 13, not counting reserves. She said she was asked to pat down female inmates, and was once made to perform a cavity search on a woman suspected of having drugs. He had past drug and alcohol charges, a DUI and an arrest for public lewdness, according to police records. It did not feature a breakout of the police department. The town has also grown its police force in size and now has one officer for every 144 residents. The town of Brookside, Alabama holds municipal court once a month. 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. The ABC3340 News I-Team first exposed . (Joe Songer for al.com).Joe Songer. He expected officers to stay busy, and they were. Ramon Perez showed up for court in December ready to fight traffic citations he got in Brookside. (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. Brookside is a poster child for policing for profit, said Carla Crowder, the director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, a nonprofit devoted to justice and equity. The Birmingham Times reported that nearly half of Brookside's revenue in 2020 came from forfeitures and fines.
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