On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate County and Municipal Government Committee held a public hearing on Senate Bill 298, a bill that would allow the state to take over select cities’ police department if their staffing levels stay below two full-time officers per thousand residents.
“This bill is a relatively simple bill, ladies and gentlemen,” Senator Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, told the committee. “I’m sure you’ve read it affects Class 3 municipalities only. It is a minimum staffing bill, calls for as written two officers per one thousand residents. And those two officers are based on the 2020 Census, so that’s a static number not a moving number.”
Barfoot stressed the allowed compliance period of five years, subject to a minimum reduction in the gap of 10 percent per year, and that municipalities would be responsible for costs incurred by the state law enforcement agency as a result of the proposed law.
During the public comment period, Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys said that “from my point of view, [the bill] does not help us.”
“In fact, actually, for the following reasons it feels very much like we’re singled out,” he continued. “And if I’m feeling that way—and I come from officers, I rose up the ranks—and it feels like Class 3 agencies only are being singled out. And when we get singled out in this sort of manner, and across the state, it casts undeserved, negative aspersions on the agencies that are affected. There are only two that are affected.”
Montgomery and Huntsville are the only two Class 3 municipalities in Alabama. The designation is determined by how many residents a city had during the 1970 Census.
Under the law, Montgomery would be required to maintain a police force of at least 400 officers as the city had an estimated population of just over 200,000 per the 2020 Census. Huntsville would have to maintain a police force of at least 430 officers.
The 2026 budget for Montgomery allocated $62 million for the city’s police department. Huntsville’s recent budget set aside $80.5 million, or almost a quarter of the city’s total general fund budget.
However, the National Police Funding Database, maintained by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute, reports that the Montgomery Police Department had only 280 full-time law enforcement officers in 2024.
“Our agency has been making every effort to combat what has been a state and national issue affecting law enforcement agencies in recruiting and retention arising from nationwide trends and conditions arising between 2020 and 2024,” Graboys said. “Currently our recruiting and retention are on the upswing.”
The police chief also told the committee that he doesn’t see how the bill would help the department with recruiting or retention and stressed again that it would hurt officer morale.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed also spoke during the public hearing.
“I don’t think it’s a good bill, I don’t think it’s a needed bill at all,” Reed stated. “I think this is a solution in search of a problem.”
“Are we going to continue to work, each and every day, to try to hire the best and brightest and recruit and retain them?” the mayor asked. “Absolutely. Do we need the state’s help in that? No, we don’t.”
A representative of the Alabama League of Municipalities, Baker Allen, also spoke against the bill.
During the space for legislators to comment on the bill, Senator Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, struck a similar note to Chief Graboys.
“This bill does absolutely nothing for recruitment,” she said. “We have a recruitment problem. The bill doesn’t do anything for recruitment. Oversight, but does it put any money in here for bonuses for recruitment. Does it help change the perception that some people have of policing?”
Mayor Reed and Senator Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, both complained during the meeting that they had only learned about the bill days before the hearing despite representing Montgomery residents. SB298 was officially introduced by Senator Barfoot on February 12.
After Hatcher stressed the quick turnaround during his comment and requested that a vote on the bill be put off, the committee chairman agreed to make SB298 the first item on the committee’s schedule for next week’s meeting.
