What exactly do Alabama Republicans want the people in Montgomery to do?
Over the course of the last several months, it has become quite fashionable among the conservatives within Alabama’s government to vilify Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed and to drone on and on incessantly about the incredible amount of crime in Montgomery. There have been numerous legislative proposals to address this “out-of-control crime” issue and there have been no shortage of politicians—some from as far away as Decatur—who have opined on the distressing state of life in the state capital.
Now there is a bill that has passed the state senate which will require Montgomery to hire a certain number of police officers (1.9 for 1,000 residents) by the year 2031. If that number isn’t achieved, the city’s police force will be taken over by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
But here’s the thing: None of this makes any damn sense.
Not a lick.
Let’s start with this little nugget: ALEA itself is currently understaffed.
So, we’re going to mandate that an understaffed state agency take over an understaffed city police department? Smart.
The absurdity of this doesn’t stop there.
We could move onto, why Montgomery? Currently, there are at least five cities in the state with higher crime rates—both property crimes and violent crimes—than Montgomery. And let’s also not forget that there is an entire city police force (Hanceville) that was disbanded after a grand jury called it a “criminal enterprise,” a sheriff’s office (Walker County) that has seen 20 employees and the sheriff indicted and/or convicted and another city police force (Brookside) that is under court order to stop its illegal for-profit traffic stops.
So, remind me, why have we focused on Montgomery so much?
I think I know the answer, and you do too.
And look, to be fair to the Will Barfoots of the world, Steven Reed does make for a great villain if you’re an easily-offended, insecure white person, or have such people make up the base of your target voters.
A Black guy who just keeps arguing with facts and refuses to accept the blame for the results of 60-plus years of discrimination, cruelty and indifference to suffering? Sounds like a villain to me.
But outside of erasing history and/or coaxing a genie with three wishes out of a bottle, I’m really unclear on what these people want Reed to do when it comes to the police force. Or why it seems to always fall on Reed and only Reed.
Last I checked, Montgomery has a fairly powerful city council. A city council that is not, by any stretch, in the mayor’s pocket. In fact, one that quite often votes against the mayor’s wishes and challenges him on key votes. Their confrontations are quite well known, and there are plenty of videos floating around the internet of their most contentious arguments.
Am I to believe that the mayor is somehow standing in the way of ideas that the council has for attracting more police officers? Because I’ve watched quite a few city council meetings and work sessions, and I haven’t seen evidence of this.
In addition, I happen to know that the mayor and council have worked together in numerous efforts over the years to address policing shortages. Shortages that began at least as far back as former Mayor Todd Strange’s tenure. In 2017, nearly 10 years ago, MPD was offering hiring incentives and trying to lure retired law enforcement to work for the department in an effort to address shortages.
During Reed’s tenure, even more has been done. The city has upped officers’ pay with two 15-percent bumps and another cost-of-living raise. They are offering $15,000 hiring incentives for incoming officers who pass training. And they have put more than $8.5 million into equipment and fleet upgrades since 2020.
In addition, this narrative that city officials, and Reed in particular, have been unwilling to work with outside entities and state officials who have offered assistance is also bogus. The state task force, or The Metro Area Crime Suppression (MACS) Unit, that includes a number of law enforcement agencies, has been working cooperatively with MPD for months now.
That unit reported more than 400 arrests and more than 3,000 traffic stops in the first year.
And last week, at a press conference, officials announced that another local, state and federal operation within Montgomery had resulted in another 63 arrests and more than 50 illegal firearms being removed from the streets.
Oh, and just by the way, that MACS unit announced that its efforts had resulted in a 30 percent decrease in violent crime and a 19 percent drop in crime overall within Montgomery.
Honestly, it seems to me that the real problem in Montgomery isn’t that the mayor lacks the want-to to fix the crime problems or police shortages. It doesn’t seem as if the problem is in pay or incentives. It doesn’t appear as if there is an issue of willingness to work with others or accept well-intentioned assistance.
Certainly Montgomery has its issues, as many large cities do. Crime is a problem. Guns are a major issue. Youth violence is distressing. And a police shortage (all over the country) is concerning. But none of those problems are unique to Montgomery or particularly outsized for the city.
You know, maybe the issue here is that so many people in positions of power keep telling everyone how terrible Montgomery is, how dangerous it is, how dysfunctional it is and how unsafe you are just walking down the street. A lot of people seem to be benefiting personally from tearing down the city, while offering nothing of substance to address the real issues. Maybe those are the real problems.
Because none of this other stuff, including the proposed legislation, makes any sense.
