SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed is raising serious concerns about a proposed state law that could allow Alabama to take control of local police departments that fail to meet minimum staffing requirements — calling the measure unnecessary and an overreach into municipal authority.
Senate Bill 298, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, would require police departments in Alabama’s “Class 3” municipalities to maintain at least two full-time sworn officers per 1,000 residents, based on 2020 Census data. Due to Alabama’s decades-old municipal classification system tied to 1970 population figures, only Montgomery and Huntsville fall into that category.
“This bill is a relatively simple bill, ladies and gentlemen,” Barfoot told the Senate County and Municipal Government Committee. “It is a minimum staffing bill, calling for 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.”…