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. 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. It resulted in Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones resigning Tuesday on the same day Alabama Lt. Gov. 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. Lacey Shelton experienced that when she was jailed last year on charges she disputes. Bryan told a supportive crowd that he is working to build a better future in a way that makes families feel safe. 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 . These figures were provided by the city: Brookside Police. Mayor Bryan dismissed the complaints of those who must appear in court. Hall did appeal, and a Jefferson County judge ultimately dismissed the charges. At right, clockwise from top: Netta Womack, who prayed for relief, plaintiff Jori Jones, Chana Hodges, and Rev. In May of 2019, the month Brumlow was stopped, Brookside officers ticketed 75 people for driving in the left lane. But Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared after that, and the towns law-enforcement goals and its reputation changed. He reported that his Police Chief was mad.. Ive never seen a possession case split like that, he said. 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 . Click on a feature to learn more. However, if you do not have an address, the Mississippi Neighborhood Explorer is the SECOND-BEST-TOOL to research a neighborhood (it provides a subset of the information that the Address Research Tool provides), but you can get a report by simply marking a spot on a map. It comes in the wake of the policing controversy in Brookside. Ramon Perez felt that way as well, sitting in the courtroom and hearing defendants plead to the same charges over and over. "What if $150 is the cost of choosing between feeding my child, getting their medicine or paying this ticket?" (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. Thats my (late) husbands boat, she said. While the town paid officers as little as $12 an hour, Jones used state-disbursed federal grant money to lure new hires with thousands of hours of overtime. Walker told the judge he will fight the charge. Jones again as Mayor Bryan nodded said the goal of the department is only to help people. He was also ticketed for improper signal, though he cant even fathom how that might have occurred. (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. 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. For driving with an expired tag. Jones and Bryan said neither the town nor the police department relies on the revenue officers bring in. 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 . She complained directly to then-Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones. In another case, Brookside police last year confiscated a 2014 Honda Civic owned by a man named Sean Wattson, even though Wattson was not driving and was not in the car, according to a lawsuit he filed against the town. She fought it instead. He and members of the town council complained of slow response times from the county, and of drug infestations in and around the area. Wayne Jett, the owner of Jetts Towing, referred questions to his lawyer, Jay Tidwell. Like those on Dec. 2. Officers in Brookside have been accused in lawsuits of manufacturing reasons for traffic stops, overcharging and "making up laws," AL.com reported. A Brookside officer ticketed Brumlow under Alabama code section 32-5-77, which her lawyers contend does not contain a crime. Dawson and Danneman suspected what the world would come to know in January, when Brooksides reign would end as suddenly as it started. He acquired three military surplus trucks through the federal 1033 program, which passes used military guns and equipment to local law enforcement. County Office is not affiliated with any government agency. 13333-A Hwy. Jones blamed the lawsuits on ambulance-chasing attorneys.. 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 Tuscaloosa County Public Works Dept. The town faces several state investigations, and has brought in outside help to rebuild the department. 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. (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. He described how Jones hoped to turn the neighboring community center one of the few amenities for the townspeople into a police building and jail. Government websites often end in .gov or .mil. The Brookside police staff, based on this data, came to one officer for every 84 residents in January. It has had a continued practice of stopping and ticketing scores of vehicles daily, doing so without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriffs department for service. 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. 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. 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.. No one can objectively look at this and conclude this is good government that is keeping us safer.. He lent his car to a friend, who was pulled over and arrested for drug possession. Im still kind of in debt from that.. His listed phone is not accepting calls and he did not respond to emails. BROOKSIDE, AL (WBMA) - A federal lawsuit has been filed over allegations Brookside Police should not have written traffic tickets under an old Alabama law. Brookside town clerk Debbie Keedy and Mayor Mike Bryan at a 2022 town council meeting. 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. I know that.. He decided to plead guilty and pay the fines after seeing how others were treated. In court she pleaded down to driving without a state license less serious than driving while suspended and ultimately got her license back. CNN . Perform a free Brookside, AL public property records search, including property appraisals, unclaimed property, ownership searches, lookups, tax records, titles, deeds, and liens. We made the decision that we wouldnt do that again, that this would just be a self-contained Brookside, said council member Chris McCondichie, the former mayors son. 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. The motive was to generate revenue for Brookside.. 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 . Drivers, both in responding to the stories and in a town hall held last week to address police and court concerns, have complained of bullying, intimidation, detention, retribution, threats, racial profiling, and charges made up of whole cloth to stack fines on drivers, among other things. At least three bills are now before the Legislature that would affect those cities. He was charged with 31 counts of criminal littering, and town Judge Wooten had fined him $14,268. She called for the second town hall meeting this week.. Givan and Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway held the first town hall, in which 200 people gathered and 31 told stories of harassment and abuse. Brookside hired Hudgens as a dispatcher in August of 2019. Another SUV faced her, bright lights on, and yet another pulled at the rear. The ABC3340 News I-Team first exposed . I had to be patient., Netta Womack tells her story. 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). Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Five others resigned Jan. 28, and Jones second-in-command, former Lt. James Bo Savelle III, resigned Jan. 31, resigned after questions about his past. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. He told me it would be in my best interest if I just shut the F up, she said. There were two cars and one SUV that surrounded my car and police were everywhere, she wrote. Others werent so fortunate. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The Alabama House passed a bill that would make it illegal to move police jurisdiction signs. By Tristan Ruppert. When she called town hall a few days later, she was told Brookside needed the officers name to determine the location of the car, she said. 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 . brookside, alabama police jurisdiction map. 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%. Will Ainsworth requested a state audit, and amid calls for state and federal investigations. Seven Brookside police officers have resigned since details of the town's aggressive policing strategy gained national attention in January. Vincent Witt, who sued Brookside after his treatment there. Its not until you learn right from wrong in the police world that you know just whats going on. Stories of how Alabama legal systems criminalize poverty. It was something that I should not have been stopped for, Brumlow said in sworn testimony. James Sebestain Bo Savelle III (Photo courtesy of Hoover Police). Another woman, Emily Sierra, emailed AL.com to say she was pulled over in Brookside three years ago for a single flash of her lights to warn oncoming traffic about a speed trap. Brookside Police Department is a cultural feature (building) in Jefferson County. But not in the courtroom. As a single mom that really messed me up, she said. When drivers asked why they were being treated as criminals, officers responded, as Jeanetta Jones claims they did to her, by saying they were the police, and could do what they wanted. 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. He declared bankruptcy in 2019. He said police accused him of running a stop sign that I never did run, and he complained about it on Facebook. I see a 600% increase thats a failure. The Planning Jurisdictions and City/Town Limits in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The money Hudgens spoke of was substantial. Police put her in a patrol car and searched her vehicle for drugs. 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. Shes in my sight.. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. 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). I had two boats in my boat shed and he put stickers on both of them and told me, because I didnt have updated tags on them that they were gonna tow em, Pickle said. That's a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. The office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, declined to comment Friday about the traffic stops in Brookside. In the meantime, well continue to make good on our promises to reform policing in Brookside, said Mayor Bryan on Wednesday. They told me they dont give blankets, she said. Everybodys got a story, he said. They were shining these flashlights in my car and it was daylight. Garbage bags filled with used adult diapers, soiled puppy pads and empty oatmeal packets had been regularly dumped along the main road through the tiny town just north of Birmingham. Town officials ignored signs of trouble because they were so infatuated with the influx of money that they had blinders on, she said. [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. NEW! When youre naive and you work with police, you assume theyre gonna do the right thing, he said. She paid the $160 ticket and began to make her case through emails to public officials, complaints, a television interview and elsewhere. This month the town judge, Jim Wooten, announced he would step aside and recuse himself from all pending cases. It comes in the . But Jones sold Brookside a vision of how to turn a sleepy department into an intimidating and lucrative force. And the police chief has called for more. He was very ugly from the start.. Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham has demanded the resignations of Bryan, Brookside City Attorney Mark Parnell and Municipal Judge Jim Wooten. story of how the tiny town turned to aggressive ticketing to build a ballooning police force that came to provide half the towns revenue. The complaint seeks return of property and damages. They let her out of jail at midnight, long after her family had made bond. 2022 Police Jurisdiction Annexations, Deannexations and Ordinances, Ords. Sheriff Pettway gaped at the Brookside ratio. Hudgens said she quit as a dispatcher because of the way the town handled and in her mind, glossed over Savelles arrest. I should have brought a lawyer, but right now my time is not there, he said. 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. He expected officers to stay busy, and they were. Officers, dressed completely in dark, unmarked uniforms approached her, and one accused her of flickering her lights to warn others of their presence, her suit alleges. Brookside prosecutor Mark Parnell, fought dismissal of some of those cases, but asked for the dismissal of others. Military vehicles used by the Brookside Police Dept. A Peace Officer sworn in the State of Alabama can enforce the law anywhere in the State of Alabama, he wrote in an email. He posted his displeasure on Facebook, he said, and then a police officer stopped him, blue lights flashing. Brookside has two drug-sniffing dogs one named K9 Cash to search the cars of stopped motorists. They often say they had no idea why they were pulled over while passing near Brookside on Interstate 22. Ramon Perez showed up for court in December ready to fight traffic citations he got in Brookside. The Town of Brookside, Alabama, is a municipal corporation organized under the laws of the State of Alabama ("the State"), and subject to suit. 2023 County Office. AL.com published a story outlining Brookside policing, , former Lt. James Bo Savelle III, resigned Jan. 31. says he was a passenger in car stopped for driving with an improper tag, and that he was detained, among other things. The town already had weapons and a personnel carrier through the program the feds call it a mine-resistant vehicle and residents knew it as the tank., The town of Brookside, Alabama holds municipal court once a month. A third calls for guidelines on how cities and towns handle municipal courts. And its not an idle threat. 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. A year before, Brooksides low-key, one-man police department had begun to metastasize, at the behest of town leaders, into an insatiable band of reverse Robin Hoods, stopping so many cars, detaining and arresting so many people that it couldnt keep up. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 - each carrying fines. I was just looking at him like, so this is what this stop is about?. A revenue strategy: tickets, tows and arrests. She pulled to the side of the road as the SUV pulled behind her, and a wrecker simultaneously parked nearby. Jones could not be reached for comment Friday. Reporting Agency: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Alabama. of Examiners Friday found several problems, including: the way the town collected and spent court fees, more than a dozen guns that were supposed to be collected as evidence are missing, municipal court officials who got a raise in 2019 as the small town's municipal court started getting busier with . But those town bosses wanted a big, professional police department. But in Brookside, Alabama, a top-down scheme pushed by its police chief, mayor and council has . 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. So he quit, after about a year on the job. Still, police seized his car, and refused to return it, though they didnt begin official forfeiture proceedings. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. "Brookside is a continuation of that story almost 10 years later. 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.. As the department grew, employees say it reflected Jones vision. You know, weve had a lot of issues with Brookside.. 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. The primary coordinates for Brookside Police Department places it within the AL 35214 ZIP Code delivery area.. Maps, Driving Directions & Local Area Information Thats why I hesitated to fight it. 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. Transfer Portal. 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. The town's latest release came out early February 1st. He instituted a no pleas from Brookside rule, and asked his workers to flag for scrutiny every case out of that town. I have never been in any trouble only had one speeding ticket. And a Brookside man told AL.com police in the town pulled him over with blue lights and told him there would be consequences if he posted more about the police on Facebook. Government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Vincent Witt and his sister, Tareya, Chief Jones tried to intimidate her in a social media message, 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. For Michelle Jones, it has been a dedicated three-year fight. Chief Henry Irby, hired to try to restore credibility to the disgraced Brookside Police Department, speaks to the town council .