Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed was clearly displeased with Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth after Ainsworth took a jab at the capital's mayor at a sold-out Eastern Shore Republican Women's luncheon in Fairhope on Thursday.
Ainsworth touched on several topics while meeting with the Republican women. The topic that caught the illustrious eye of Reed was when Ainsworth addressed the state's efforts to tackle crime.
1819 News recently reported on Reed's statements, in which he claimed that crime had decreased by 28% in the city in the first half of the year compared to the previous one.
SEE: Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed claims violent crime down 28% in capital city
1819 News accurately reported that in his list of acknowledgments for the efforts to reduce crime, Reed failed to mention the Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit (MACS), which began operating in June of last year to address the escalating crime in the capital city.
The MACS Unit was more or less forced on Reed. At the press conference announcing the unit's formation in July 2024, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) Secretary Hal Taylor, Attorney General Steve Marshall, Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham and then-interim Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys all spoke in support of the unit.
Graboys said the City, under the directive of Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, has contributed members of its SWAT and Gang Suppression Units to the MACS Unit. However, Marshall went out of his way to emphasize that the Unit did not emerge as a result of Reed or his office, contradicting Reed's claims to WSFA, in which he claimed that MACS came from his contacting ALEA and other law enforcement agencies.
"I can tell you this effort did not begin as a result of a phone call from city officials or even from the local police department," Marshall said. "It's because we heard the citizens of Montgomery. We heard you demand that you needed to feel safe in this community, and we responded and responded in a way that you've already heard dramatic success from all of the partners involved. But two people need to be given immense credit, and that is Secretary Taylor and Sheriff Cunningham."
Ainsworth took umbrage with Reed's lack of acknowledgement of the MACS Unit, claiming Reed "was taking credit for a lot of work that other people did."
"But I think that same model where ALEA is going in and the state is partnering with local law enforcement, certainly we want to do that in other parts of the state as well, and I think that's a good model, and so we're gonna continue to do that," Ainsworth continued.
Reed responded via X on Friday, sharing the 1819 News story and boasting of himself as uninterested in who gets credit for the city's accomplishments and suggesting the state would be better off if Ainsworth did the same.
"I'm not sure why [Aiinsworth] brought me up in his talk but I'm not worried about credit because I focus on results," Reed wrote on social media. "Maybe if the Lt. Governor did the same we would have a safer and more prosperous Alabama."
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