MONTGOMERY — Members of the Senate County and Municipal Government Committee passed legislation on Tuesday that sets minimum staffing standards for law enforcement agencies in Montgomery.
The bill by State Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) would provide minimum staffing requirements for Class 3 municipal law enforcement agencies. Alabama has two Class 3 cities, Montgomery and Huntsville. Most of the discussion about the bill has centered around Montgomery.
The requirements would include a minimum of two full-time law enforcement officers per 1,000 residents of the municipality. The bill would establish a five-year compliance period for municipalities not in compliance on the effective date of the act. During this compliance period, the municipality would be required to meet certain goals and increase staffing. The bill would provide that if a municipality fails to meet certain staffing requirements, the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency would be authorized to assume oversight of the municipal law enforcement agency. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to seek to recover any costs incurred by the state in overseeing a municipal law enforcement agency.
Montgomery City Councilman Ed Grimes recently estimated Montgomery's current police staffing level is between 220 and 230 officers, while the bill would require Montgomery to be at around 400 officers or allow ALEA to assume oversight of the police department.
The Montgomery City Council voted to give bonuses of up to $15,000 to new Montgomery police recruits and current officers at last week’s council meeting.
“That’s all well and good, but the numbers have continued to drop. We hope that ALEA doesn’t have to be involved, that the state doesn’t have to be involved, but this is just a safety measure that if in fact those efforts taken by the City of Montgomery don’t improve the numbers or the ratio of police officers in Montgomery, then we’ve got a plan in place,” Barfoot told reporters on Tuesday. “If ALEA comes in and helps Montgomery in this endeavor to increase the recruitment and retention of those officers, any monies that are spent on behalf of the state are able to be recouped from the City of Montgomery, so the state is not out of any taxpayer dollars. We’re funding the Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit with all state dollars. That’s just simply a band-aid that can’t last forever, so this fills the gap there.”
He continued, “As it relates to Montgomery…the City of Montgomery has, as I understand it, has budgeted for well in excess of 400 officers over the last several years. That’s good. The money is there, they’re just not able to hire those officers. Money has been set aside in past years for those officers, so Montgomery shouldn’t have any net loss of revenue based on the budgeting that they’ve done in the past.”
The bill now heads to the Senate for its consideration.
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