Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed speaks out against bill to force increased police staffing

Photo from the City of Montgomery

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) – Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed is speaking out in opposition to a bill that would force the city to increase police staffing levels or else have the state control the police department.

As Action 8 News has reported, a bill  sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road), would allow the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to step in if class C municipalities fail to meet minimum police staffing levels. That would apply to Montgomery and Huntsville.

Montgomery has a population of just over 200,000 people, according to 2020 census. Barfoot says the city needs two officers per 1,000 people to police effectively.

“400 is the minimum that Montgomery needs for these police officers to be effective in their job. That’s not a random number. It wasn’t just picked from the air, that’s from the City of Montgomery Police Department’s former interim police chief,” Barfoot said.

The Montgomery Police Department has not publicly released its current staffing numbers, citing safety concerns. Barfoot says credible sources tell him the department has between 220 and 230 officers — about 40% fewer than the recommended minimum.

According to the bill, Montgomery would be required to increase its net number of officers by 10% each year. If the city fails to meet those benchmarks over a five-year period, ALEA could step in, develop an operational plan and contract with other law enforcement agencies to help patrol the city.

Sen. Barfoot said the city would have to reimburse the state or other agencies for the expenses they incur in helping the police department. He says the city already budgets for enough officers and would not need to raise taxes to comply with the requirements of the bill.

Today, Mayor Reed spoke out once again against the bill, known as Senate Bill 298.

“SB 298 is not about public safety, it is about control,” Mayor Reed said. “This bill imposes an unfunded mandate on Montgomery that the State of Alabama itself fails to meet by a factor of twenty. You cannot hold cities to a standard you refuse to meet at the state level.

The city says while the bill would mandate that Montgomery have two officers per 1,000 residents, ALEA only has about 0.1 state troopers per 1,000 residents. The city says the bill doesn’t provide funding to hire more officers or other solutions.

Sen. Barfoot told Action 8 News today that comparing a police department to state troopers isn’t an accurate comparison.

“What ALEA and the state troopers are doing out on the roads and highways in the state of Alabama, comparing the troopers to what happens in a municipality, is totally different and we’ve been fortunate that ALEA has assisted Montgomery in interventions and traffic stops since the Metro Area Crime Suppression unit has been in place, and that’s funded by taxpayer dollars throughout the state, so those are apples and oranges and an attempt by those at the city to create some disparity that doesn’t exist,” Barfoot said.

With the help of the Metro Area Crime Suppression unit, which involves county, state and federal officers helping the Montgomery Police Department, crime numbers are down. The city says violent crime is down 57%, homicides are down 78% and non-fatal shootings have dropped 40%. The city didn’t make it clear what period of time is represented by these numbers nor did it provide raw numbers on the categories.

Sen. Barfoot says MACS is not a long-term fix.

“The state taxpayers from other areas of the state are probably not going to, as far as their representatives and senators, not going to want to continue to fund something that is specifically for a certain area,” he said.

The city says it is making progress and is calling for a more balanced approach using partnerships and not punishment in order to further reduce the numbers.

Some local pastors and other faith leaders held a news conference this afternoon outside the Alabama State House to voice their opposition to the Senate bill. They say if passed, the legislation would threaten decades of progress in community-based policing.