Brookside, Alabama: A Tiny Town Is Growing Its Police Force by Fining Everybody in Sight

[Democide]

A Tiny Alabama Town Is Growing Its Police Force by Fining Everybody in Sight
Brookside officers have been accused of fabricating violations and are being sued.

19 January 2022

Brookside, Alabama, has a population of less than 1,500 people. For most of the past decade it saw little crime—only 55 major crimes in eight years, none homicide or rape. But in the past couple of years, the tiny town has generated an outsized police force, and today the Birmingham News reports why. The mayor and police force there are looking to fine anybody they can to bring in revenue. Birmingham News columnist John Archibald reports, "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 ...

A Tiny Alabama Town Is Growing Its Police Force by Fining Everybody in Sight

Brookside officers have been accused of fabricating violations and are being sued.

reason.com

 

[Democide]

This Tiny Alabama Town Of 1,200 Has Been Overrun By Out Of Control Police

20 July2020

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 ...

This Tiny Alabama Town Of 1,200 Has Been Overrun By Out Of Control Police

 

[Democide]

Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal ‘black hole’

19 January 2022

Ramon Perez came to court last month ready to fight the tickets he’d been handed by Brookside police, including one for rolling through a stop sign and another for driving 48 mph in a 40 zone. He swore he’d seen the cop from a distance and was careful as he braked. “I saw him and we looked eye to eye,” the Chelsea business owner said. “There’s no way I was going to run that stop sign.” When he got to court Dec. 2, he saw scores of people just like him lining up to stand before Judge Jim Wooten, complaining ...

Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal ‘black hole’

Using unmarked police cars and uniforms without insignia, the town with no traffic lights collected $487 in fines and forfeitures in 2020 for every man, woman and child. Total town income more than doubled from 2018 to 2020 – from $582,000 to more than $1.2 million – as fines and forfeitures...

www.al.com

 

[Democide]

Alabama Town Has 1,253 People, Nine Cops, And Generates $600,000 A Year From Traffic Stops

27 January 2022

Small towns strapped for cash sometimes decide to use their law enforcement agencies to generate a steadily increasing revenue stream. Towns that otherwise would never have been noticed by non-residents have achieved national notoriety by unofficially rebranding as Speed Trap, USA. Sometimes this notoriety leads to punishment by other government agencies. A small town in Oklahoma was banned from enforcing traffic laws by the state's Department of Safety after it came to light the town of 410 people was employing six police officers to haul in nearly $500,000 in fees in a single year -- 76% of the town's revenue. ...

Alabama Town Has 1,253 People, Nine Cops, And Generates $600,000 A Year From Traffic Stops

Small towns strapped for cash sometimes decide to use their law enforcement agencies to generate a steadily increasing revenue stream. Towns that otherwise would never have been noticed by non-residents have achieved national notoriety by unofficially...

www.techdirt.com

 

[Democide]

Police Chief of Alabama Town That Was Getting Fat on Fines Steps Down Amid Bipartisan Outrage
Last week, Chief Mike Jones defended his campaign of fining everybody in sight. This week, he resigned.

26 January 2022

The police chief that defended a small Alabama town's rapacious fining of drivers has resigned following media coverage and outraged calls for action from both Democratic and Republican state officials. The tiny town of Brookside, with a population of less than 1,500, became a national news story last week when John Archibald of the Birmingham News reported that its mayor and Police Chief Mike Jones had embarked on a system of ramping up fines and forfeitures to bankroll its government. Archibald calculated that the town's revenue nearly tripled across four years entirely from these fines, targeting primarily anybody passing through ...

Police Chief of Alabama Town That Was Getting Fat on Fines Steps Down Amid Bipartisan Outrage

The police chief that defended a small Alabama town's rapacious fining of drivers has resigned following media coverage and outraged...

reason.com

 

[Democide]

Small Alabama Town's Overzealous Traffic Cops Also Monitored Internet Traffic To Threaten Critics Of The Corrupt PD

4 February 2022

Welcome back to Brookside, Alabama, home of the surprisingly expensive traffic ticket. Home to one (1) Dollar General, nine (9) police officers, two (2) drug dogs (one named "K9 Cash" just in case you had any doubts about the PD's intentions), and one (1) Lt. Governor-ordered state audit. Brookside (pop. 1,253) made national headlines for soaking every passing driver officers could find with excessive fines, fees, vehicle seizures, and inconvenient court dates. AL.com's investigation showed that under Police Chief Mike Jones (who was hired in 2018), the small town has seen an increase in traffic fines, topping $600,000 in 2020. ...

Small Alabama Town's Overzealous Traffic Cops Also Monitored Internet Traffic To Threaten Critics Of The Corrupt PD

Welcome back to Brookside, Alabama, home of the surprisingly expensive traffic ticket. Home to one (1) Dollar General, nine (9) police officers, two (2) drug dogs (one named "K9 Cash" just in case you had any doubts about the PD's...

www.techdirt.com

 

[Democide]

Brookside to return ‘tank,’ mark police cars, investigate racial profiling

1 February 2022

The small town of Brookside, which in recent weeks has seen its ticket-heavy policing policies draw international attention, this morning announced an investigation into racial profiling and other changes to reform the department. “An independent inquiry is necessary to identify any bad actors and start the process of cleaning up policing,” Mayor Mike Bryan is quoted in the statement as saying. “Policing starts with the police officers. Members of our community need to be able to trust Brookside Police. We are committed to correcting that.” The town hired former Jefferson County Circuit Judge Kenneth Simon to “conduct an independent investigation ...

Brookside to return ‘tank,’ mark police cars, investigate racial profiling

Mayor Mike Bryan said in a statement that “Policing starts with the police officers. Members of our community need to be able to trust Brookside Police. We are committed to correcting that.”

www.al.com

 

[Democide]

Alabama Speed Trap Town's PD Called Out On Its Bullshit By Nearby Sheriff, Limps On Without Most Of Its Officers

16 February 2022

No one cuts cops more slack than other cops. You really have to be an impressive kind of awful to lose the support of your Thin Blue Line brothers and sisters. But the police department in Brookside, Alabama has managed to do exactly that. For years, no one had heard of or cared that the town of Brookside even existed… and that possibly includes a percentage of the town's 1,253 inhabitants. That all changed when a new sheriff rolled into town, so to speak. It wasn't a sheriff (because the county already had one) but a new police chief, Mike ...

Alabama Speed Trap Town's PD Called Out On Its Bullshit By Nearby Sheriff, Limps On Without Most Of Its Officers

No one cuts cops more slack than other cops. You really have to be an impressive kind of awful to lose the support of your Thin Blue Line brothers and sisters. But the police department in Brookside, Alabama has managed to do exactly that. For...

www.techdirt.com