The Alabama Senate on Tuesday passed a bill requiring Montgomery to increase the size of its police force or risk state intervention.
Senate Bill 298, sponsored by Senator Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, applies to Class 3 municipalities, a category that currently includes only Montgomery and Huntsville.
The bill sets a minimum staffing ratio for full-time law enforcement officers and authorizes the state to step in if a city fails to meet the requirement. Barfoot said the bill is motivated by concern for public safety in Montgomery.
“Men and women across Montgomery, from east to west to north or south, are tired of turning on the news and hearing about the violence that we’ve had here in Montgomery,” Barfoot said. “The men and women that put on a badge every single day are in that fight, and they don’t have the backup that they need.”
Under the version adopted Tuesday, the bill requires Class 3 municipalities to maintain at least 1.9 full-time law enforcement officers per 1,000 residents, down from the original 2.0-per-1,000 ratio. The amendment, offered by Senator Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, also adjusts compliance deadlines and creates a restitution process if the state deploys supplemental law enforcement resources.
If a city falls below the required staffing level, the governor could direct the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and other state or local resources to provide support.
The amended bill also requires detailed documentation of those costs and allows the state to petition a local circuit court for restitution. A court would determine whether the municipality violated the staffing requirement and, if so, order repayment for expenses including personnel, equipment, administrative overhead and indemnification.
Albritton said the changes were designed to clarify enforcement and ensure local governments remain financially responsible if the state intervenes.
“If we don’t have a means so that the city restores that cost, we’re going to have an unintended consequence whereby the state will become part of governing and patrolling the streets of the city,” Albritton said. “This is a means so that we retain the local responsibility and the local controls.”
Though written to apply to all Class 3 cities, the bill has remained focused almost exclusively on Montgomery.
Barfoot cited declining police staffing numbers in the capital city, saying Montgomery had about 485 officers in 2019 but now has an estimated 220 to 230.
He contrasted Montgomery’s staffing challenges with hiring efforts in other large cities. In Birmingham, he said city leaders announced in August 2025 that more than 200 officers had been hired since the start of that year.
Barfoot also rejected claims that the legislation would force a tax increase or create an unfunded mandate. He outlined Montgomery’s police budgets from 2022 through 2026, which rose from about $53 million to more than $62 million annually, and argued that funding has increased while positions remain unfilled.
“The money is there,” Barfoot said.
Democrats sharply criticized both the substance of the bill and the process used to advance it. They argued Montgomery officials were not adequately consulted and said the measure amounts to a state takeover of local policing decisions.
Senator Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, opposed the bill but was unable to address it on the Senate floor after the Republican majority voted to close debate. Hatcher was allowed to speak after the bill passed along party lines.
Hatcher said the legislation was being “shoved down our throats” and predicted it would face a court challenge.
“If you really wanted to do this in a way that speaks to what it means to be a community, we would have had a discussion about this. No breathing room was offered for Montgomery,” Hatcher said.
Montgomery city officials have expressed concerns about the legislation, saying it mandates a staffing ratio without providing funding to help meet the requirement.
In a statement issued ahead of the Senate vote, the city said the bill does not account for nationwide recruitment challenges facing law enforcement agencies. City leaders also said Montgomery has recently implemented recruitment incentives and targeted public safety initiatives for the police department, and violent crime indicators have declined over the past two years.
“Our police department is delivering real results—violent crime is down, homicides are down, and our community is safer today than it was just a few years ago. This legislation doesn’t support that progress. It puts it at risk,” Mayor Steven Reed said.
The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives. If enacted, Montgomery would have until 2031 to meet the staffing threshold before facing potential enforcement actions under the amended timeline.
For Barfoot, the bill represents what he called a necessary step.
“It’s not a silver bullet, but it is a start,” Barfoot said.
