Cops as a legal gang in small Alabama town

[K1052]

Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal ‘black hole’

https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/pol...-town-suck-drivers-into-legal-black-hole.html

Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. 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 city’s total income.

And the police chief has called for more.

The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 – none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.

By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 – each carrying fines. That’s a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town.

The growth has come with trouble to match. Brookside officers have been accused in lawsuits of fabricating charges, using racist language and “making up laws” to stack counts on passersby. Defendants must pay thousands in fines and fees – or pay for costly appeals to state court – and poorer residents or passersby fall into patterns of debt they cannot easily escape.

Once upon a time my family did a lot of business in small rural towns and cites. While this kind of activity is more overt than usual it strikes me as spiritually consistent with much of what we encountered over the years. Lots of people in the country act like corruption is just a big city problem. This is especially true when the cops mostly just hassle/extort outsiders or the non-white people of the jurisdiction because they think that's a good use of police power.

 

[Bitek]

Isn't this along the lines of what the police were doing in Ferguson, MO?

I can think of examples in other towns in my own experience that run a similar model (aggressive and excessive traffic enforcement to generate revenue for dept and town.) Civil forfeiture is also abused.


Defund the police was a terrible message, but focus needs to continue on the demand for fair and effective policing.

 

[brycejones]

I wonder if there is anything in Alabama law that limits the percentage of municipal income that can come from fines.

 

[Zorba]

Fines shouldn't go directly to cities, way too much opportunity for corruption. They should probably go to the state general fund.

Except for things like parking tickets where you are specifically "stealing" a city resource.

 

[dullard]

Fines shouldn't go directly to cities, way too much opportunity for corruption. They should probably go to the state general fund.

The best part is when the money goes to judges:

Nebraska advances higher fees to fund judge retirements

Lawmakers gave the measure first-round approval with a 35-5 vote, despite criticism from some senators.

www.1011now.com

Note: I was slammed in these forums the last time I complained about judges receiving the fines/fees. But, I still think it is a way to create a circle of corruption. The cops salary being paid by fines and then the court fees go to the judges. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[brycejones]

The best part is when the money goes to judges:

Nebraska advances higher fees to fund judge retirements

Lawmakers gave the measure first-round approval with a 35-5 vote, despite criticism from some senators.

www.1011now.com

Note: I was slammed in these forums the last time I complained about judges receiving the fines/fees. But, I still think it is a way to create a circle of corruption. The cops salary being paid by fines and then the court fees go to the judges. What could possibly go wrong?

The legal system should be funded strictly from the general fund as part of a constitutional mandate to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

 

[dullard]

The legal system should be funded strictly from the general fund as part of a constitutional mandate to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

Oh I agree.

 

[pmv]

It sounds almost literally medieval. Micro-states funding themselves with levies on trade or outsiders passing through.

I wonder if the police chiefs or mayors exercise some sort of Droit du seigneur as well.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Alabama police chief quits amid questions over ticketing

Associated Press on MSN.com|5 hours ago
The police chief in a small Alabama town that received about half its municipal revenue from fines and forfeitures linked to aggressive traffic enforcement resigned following a report about the practice.



Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones resigns after AL.com report on traffic trap

al.com|19 hours ago
The chief in three years took Brookside from a one-man department to a ticket-giving machine in which fines and fees brought in half the town revenue.





There was a case in Florida a few years back where they ended up abolishing the PD and contracting with the county.

 

[dawp]

there was a small town in texas that was making a killing from forfeitures from mostly drive throughs a few years back but I don't remember the name of the town.

think I found it

In the East Texas town of Tenaha, the district attorney oversaw a particularly Dickensian operation: Local cops would stop out-of-town drivers on the flimsiest of pretexts to look for cash, DVD players, cell phones, anything of value. The DA would threaten drivers with criminal charges, even promising to have state authorities remove kids from parents unless they waived rights to the property.

When it Comes to Civil Forfeiture in Texas, You Have No Property Rights

You’d think that Texas’ highest civil court—overseen by nine Republicans—would be sympathetic to a case that turns so pivotally on property rights.

www.texasobserver.org