Tiny Brooksides style of policing under Jones has become known nationally in recent weeks. Arrest powers are not confined to city limits or jurisdictional boundaries except within the State of Alabama.. Ramon Perez felt that way as well, sitting in the courtroom and hearing defendants plead to the same charges over and over. The conclusion reads: The motive was to generate revenue for Brookside.. He and members of the town council complained of. All Rights Reserved. Those charges include possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to state records. Please keep your posts factual and post links to reliable sources. Brookside Police Department. Brookside police gave her a ticket in May of 2019 for running a stop sign at Roberta Road and Cherry Avenue across I-22 from Brookside. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Detective Johnson had called and asked that I come to the Brookside Police Department to talk to them. She pulled to the side of the road as the SUV pulled behind her, and a wrecker simultaneously parked nearby. He said the case remains active and under investigation, and he is trying to determine if the Chevy Tahoe that Jones was driving once belonged to the town of Brookside. Jones and Bryan said neither the town nor the police department relies on the revenue officers bring in. The Town of Brookside participates in the affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, it says. The officer went on to say any more backlash like that towards his police department and itll be far worse than a ticket., I just stared at him, the man said. It did not feature a breakout of the police department. Careful examination of individual officer behavior is also important. They own the town.. Police Chief Mike Jones has since resigned, Lt. Gov. 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. He had a net worth of $55,000 and a monthly income of $2,244, according to federal records. The courtroom and the parking lot are packed with people. The affidavit says Jones told the Covington deputy he was the chief in Brookside, a town a couple hundred miles north, just past Birmingham. 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. This is at the corner of Roberta Road and Mulberry Road, which is far away from their city limits.. The conclusion reads: We conclude our report by recommending that new Brookside Police Department leadership adopt specific policies aimed at targeting its law enforcement efforts in more strategic ways. AL.com also sought connection through Brookside officials. Will Ainsworth requested a state audit, and amid calls for state and federal investigations. For context, Birmingham city would have to more than triple the size of its force to equal a ratio of that in Brookside. Alabama state rep. calls for Brookside mayor's resignation amid ticketing scandal, told the NBC affiliate WVTM in Birmingham, wake of the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, Attorney describes 'debtors' prison' scheme targeting poor minorities. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. . He seems to want to push the blame off on everybody else when he and (former mayor) Roger McCondichie both appointed Mike Jones knowing about his past. But for this: The officer said the chiefs pretty upset about that post you put on Facebook. the Brookside man told AL.com. And while sitting in court I heard that half the court was also stopped for the same thing.. Type: But when she did, the unmarked SUV pulled into the street, crossed the center line and sped toward her car, blue lights flashing. Givan is still pushing for change in Brookside and says those responsible should be held accountable. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT) As the Brookside Police Department debacle continues, the call for Mayor Mike Bryan and other leaders to resign still rings among those who have been victims by the city's officers. "Ferguson made us realize it wasn't just Ferguson," said Priya Sarathy Jones, the national campaign director at the Fines and Fees Justice Center,which advocates for fees to be eliminated in the justice system and fines to be equitably enforced. As more tickets brought in more money, the town began to spend much more. Seven Brookside police officers have resigned since January Published: Feb. 09, 2022, 10:00 a.m. Netta Womack tells her story about Brookside police at a town hall Tuesday February 1, 2022.. She vividly recalls the events of that night and the following day. The courtroom and the parking lot are packed with people. About a year ago, the former head of the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police received several complaints about the Brookside Police Department. We dont care about tickets, Jones said. 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 jurisdiction along Interstate 22, a corridor between Birmingham and Memphis, Tennessee. The town now faces 13 lawsuits. Thats 49% of the small towns skyrocketing revenue. The office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, declined to comment Friday about the traffic stops in Brookside. The special report concludes with six recommendations for Brookside leaders and the Brookside Police Department. It was something that I should not have been stopped for, Brumlow said in sworn testimony. He reported that his Police Chief was mad.. Harris lawyers contend she was taken to the Brookside jail, strip-searched, and told she could be jailed up to two days. (Photographerlondon / Dreamstime.com) Brookside, Alabama, has a population of less than 1,500 people. Some of the charges Savelle has faced predate his hiring at Brookside. Second, the town would likely benefit from a relationship with a research organization to provide annual information on the existence of any red flags detected in statistical trends and patterns. He built the department from a one-man operation to a ticket-hungry department with 10 blacked-out. But its a common charge in Brookside. "You're taking the money for them to potentially get that light fixed by making them pay a fine.". 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. Two or three days later Brookside police stopped him again. Kimberlee Hudgens was a dispatcher at the Brookside Police Department at the time of Savelles Hoover arrest. The growth has come with trouble to match. 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. Subscribe to our WBRC newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email. Neither the police nor the town have responded to questions since the original story ran. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. 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. 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. I cant stand a dirty cop, Sheriff Turman told AL.com. They had blinders on. Starting on Page 3 of the report Simon wrote, Our analysis of Brooksides traffic citations did not produce strong statistical evidence of racial profiling in traffic stops. I was working that night and I received a phone call from the Hoover police chief, she said. 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. Savelle was in the program for up-and-coming police officers in Helena, while Mike Jones was a patrol officer there, he said. The news outlet found that Jones positioned officers to stop motorists so aggressively that income from traffic fines and forfeitures rose 640 percent from 2018 to 2020, from about $82,000 to more than $610,000. The towns administrative expenditures rose 40% and overall spending jumped 112%, from $553,000 in 2018 to $1.2 million in 2020. Michelle Jones said she has had friends, acquaintances and family members stopped in Brookside. He was also ticketed for improper signal, though he cant even fathom how that might have occurred. Mike Jones actually knew Bo when Bo was a kid in Explorers, McDonald said. If you want to go out there and do something like that, you are creating a law., Perez said the officer went absolutely crazy over her lack of ID. 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). 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. A report quoted in the suit claimed she tighten (sic) arm muscles from getting handcuff (sic).. Walker told the judge he will fight the charge. 205-674-9275. The Brookside Police Department's practices include stacking charges so that a single violation results in a handful of charges, with corresponding fines, fees and court costs for each. Others werent so fortunate. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. That contributed a 14% chunk of the citys total income, a number that would be considered high in much of America. 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 the citys total income. The transformation of Brookside's police department began in 2018, under the direction of long-serving and now late Mayor Roger McCondichie. Brookside, just north of Birmingham, already faces at least 10 lawsuits about its policing. A third calls for guidelines on how cities and towns handle municipal courts. Stories from people stopped in the ticket-happy town continue to roll down like an avalanche, since AL.com last week published the 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 man is still afraid of retaliation, and asked for anonymity. after AL.coms original report on Brookside. Brookside is a poor town, 70% white, 21% Black, with a small but growing Hispanic population and a median income well below the state average. "Brookside will continue to cooperate with all appropriate authorities to ensure that a full investigation of these issues are completed," he 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). In January of 2014 Savelle was arrested in Shelby County a county south of Birmingham that includes Helena on charges of public intoxication, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, court records show. Turman said it critical to hold officers to a high standard. 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. In Brookside, complaints about retaliation have come time and time again, as in the case of Rev. His phone is not accepting calls and he did not return emails to an address listed as belonging to him. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to let a class-action lawsuit go forward against an Alabama town accused of policing for profit with excessive fines and aggressive enforcement of local laws. By last summer, he said in a deposition, Brookside had hired eight additional full-time officers and several part-timers. Michelle Jones made an official complaint to the Alabama Attorneys Generals office three years ago, arguing that Brookside police stopped her out of jurisdiction, issued a bogus citation and threatened her with more charges after she criticized them on Facebook. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Minnifield says he was a passenger in car stopped for driving with an improper tag, and that he was detained, among other things. The town's median household income is less than $40,000, according to demographic data. They would not share the footage. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The complaint seeks return of property and damages. "Their whole financial existence starts to spiral, and it was all over a light on their car not working.". Jones is not alone in complaining about Brookside. State agents last week began an inquiry and audit into the Brookside Police Department to find out whether it and its officers complied with state laws and regulations, according to a statement from Chief R. Alan Benefield, executive secretary of the Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission. State Representative Juandalynn Givan isnt surprised by the report. Leadership at every level of government is required to make our cities and towns safer. The citizens of this state and those traveling through this state should enjoy the opportunity to freely access our roadways, he said. County Office is not affiliated with any government agency. And its not an idle threat. "Brookside is a continuation of that story almost 10 years later. The complaint alleges numerous constitutional violations, and we believe the citizens need to be protected from illegal actions by the Town of Brookside.. Third, police leadership and individual officers would likely benefit from training focused not only on racial profiling, but also on overall traffic enforcement strategy. 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. Which is another problem altogether, Sheriff Pettway said. Brookside has two drug-sniffing dogs one named K9 Cash to search the cars of stopped motorists. 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. It has had a continued practice of stopping and ticketing scores of vehicles daily, doing so without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.. Jones said crime when he took over was higher than it appeared from numbers the town reported to the state. If we have to come get ya, well make you famous!, When you look at their Facebook pages its almost like they are bullies. He lent his car to a friend, who was pulled over and arrested for drug possession. 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. She was also charged with resisting arrest. Fines and forfeitures seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things doubled from 2018 to 2019. . The next day she spoke to the husband of the woman who complained to Hoover police. BROOKSIDE, Ala. (WBRC) - WBRC confirmed Mike Jones resigned as Brookside Police Chief. For most of the past decade it saw little crimeonly 55 . Lt. Gov. In his call to Jones this week, the investigator said he could not tell me anything because of the ongoing investigation, Jones said. For Michelle Jones, it has been a dedicated three-year fight. He feels the police saw him as prey, and treated him as such. CNN's Nick Valencia. Another would bar police from using unmarked cars for traffic stops. It is what happened after the stop that is most concerning to him. 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. He was cited for driving with a suspended license a matter he thought hed cleared up but he doesnt blame Brookside for that. The town of Brookside, Alabama holds municipal court once a month. I honestly dont think the towns gonna be able to come back from this. 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. And it broke her heart, it broke my heart.. But lawyers and law enforcement officers across central Alabama have raised questions about things in Brookside they say they have never otherwise come across. His statement said he is not taking questions. A Peace Officer sworn in the State of Alabama can enforce the law anywhere in the State of Alabama, he wrote in an email. Mayor Mike Bryan late Wednesday said there was no conspiracy, The Town has just been made aware of this amended lawsuit, Bryan told AL.com. I was scared to death even though I was doing nothing wrong.. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. And 99% of them are lying.. Givan and Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway want to hear more, and will hold a town hall meeting today. He was drunk and disorderly and harassed a married couple, according to a Hoover offense report. The BPD has managed to double the impoverished town's total income from 2018 to 2020 as a result of its 640% increase in fines and forfeitures. Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. Sheriff Pettway said those who face charges in Brookside and want to ensure justice can get a bond and appeal their case. Its more important now than ever before that law enforcement maintain high levels of professionalism and integrity, he said. Read also: Brookside police patrolled social media, threatening town critics. 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. And theyre saying they were nowhere near Brookside.. 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. 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. See also: Savelle among those sued by preacher who claimed Brookside revenge. Find Brookside residential property records including property owners, sales & transfer history, deeds & titles, property taxes, valuations, land, zoning records & more. Brookside Police Department leadership cast its enforcement dragnet too widely: Special Report on Brookside PD released, 2 adults, 1 juvenile charged in Kimberly kidnapping case, Cat, missing for 2 years, found nearly 1,600 miles away, police say, More parents choosing alternate education. Savelle pulled out a Brookside Police Department badge before Hoover officers arrived, according to the report that cited witnesses and the presence of cameras. Police charged Harris with flickering her lights or nuisance of casting lights from motor vehicle on real property at night, which she argues did not happen and eventually was dropped. One, by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur would force cities to make the amount of fines and fees they collect public. I just know that the police departments not gonna be able to come back from this, she said. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Over-policing can also create the perception of racial profiling when it appears to target minority citizens. Spiral, and treated him as such resigned as Brookside police Department she has had friends, acquaintances family! Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site the lot. Brookside leaders and the parking lot are packed with people doing nothing..... Generate revenue for Brookside under Jones has become known nationally in recent weeks state records of this and! 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