The curious case of the financial income of the town, on the outskirts of Birmingham, exploded into a scandal following a local news report on AL.com last week. The special report concludes with six recommendations for Brookside leaders and the Brookside Police Department. It is what happened after the stop that is most concerning to him. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Brookside Police Department. Attempts to reach Savelle for comment were unsuccessful. The deputy described a Brookside badge with a chief indicator at the bottom. Brookside police made 4.4 arrests in 2020 for every household. See also: Savelle among those sued by preacher who claimed Brookside revenge. People who were stopped by Brookside police and fined more than the state allows. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is the police department that serves the area, where Mike Hale is the sheriff. Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brooksides finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. Since this involves a personnel matter, the Town has no further comment. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Police put her in a patrol car and searched her vehicle for drugs. Perez ultimately decided to pay the $1,100 fine on top of hundreds hed already spent to get his towed car back and get the heck out of Brookside. He returned to his job as second in command with consent of the town council, Hudgens said. He said people have stories about their cars getting towed and being left on the side of the road, then being charged by both the town and the impound company to get their vehicles back, on top of daily storage fees. Brookside Police Department leadership cast its enforcement dragnet too widely: Special Report on Brookside PD released, 2 adults, 1 juvenile charged in Kimberly kidnapping case, Cat, missing for 2 years, found nearly 1,600 miles away, police say, More parents choosing alternate education. A Peace Officer sworn in the State of Alabama can enforce the law anywhere in the State of Alabama, he wrote in an email. She set out to challenge it. Fines and forfeitures seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things doubled from 2018 to 2019. They tell, with consistency, of specious tickets and arrests, of retaliation by a police department and by a chief who challenged those who questioned him as he sought to build an empire on the backs of drivers. The affidavit says Jones told the Covington deputy he was the chief in Brookside, a town a couple hundred miles north, just past Birmingham. And 99% of them are lying.. Vincent Witt and his sister, Tareya, who said the small police department fabricated charges against them and listed them as fugitives because Witt complained about an officers racist remark. Suggest Listing Brookside has 1,253 people, according to the most recent census. And it broke her heart, it broke my heart.. Officials from the examiners office were believed to visit Brookside last week. (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. The suit also names 23 current and former officers as individual defendants. Two or three days later Brookside police stopped him again. It showed police in 2020 patrolled 114,438 miles in the 6.3-mile town and issued more than 3,000 citations a 692% increase from 2018. By last summer, he said in a deposition, Brookside had hired eight additional full-time officers and several part-timers. It showed police in 2020 patrolled 114,438 miles in the 6.3-mile town and issued more than 3,000 citations - a 692% increase. WBRC FOX6 News has reached out to the Town of Brookside leaders for a response to the special report, and we will update this story when we receive a response. Mayor Mike Bryan late Wednesday said there was no conspiracy, The Town has just been made aware of this amended lawsuit, Bryan told AL.com. In January of 2014 Savelle was arrested in Shelby County a county south of Birmingham that includes Helena on charges of public intoxication, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, court records show. "It's the wild, Wild West, and they created their own wild, Wild West.". Police must direct traffic before the 1 p.m. court session starts. Periodic review of bodycam video can be used to monitor and investigate possible profiling or other alleged misconduct. The motive was to generate revenue for Brookside.. Tuesday February 1, 2022. It was something that I should not have been stopped for, Brumlow said in sworn testimony. He was charged with misdemeanor possession, but also five counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, for: The names of the officers were not listed on the tickets in secretive Brookside. Brookside police officers in sworn depositions indicated they did not follow drivers for a full mile and a half before or after the new law was passed, and they continued to write tickets under the old law after the new road rage bill passed. All rights reserved (About Us). Traffic tickets, and criminalizing those who passed through, became the citys leading industry. The Town of Brookside participates in the affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, it says. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. They were infatuated with Mike (Jones) because he was doing all this good for Brookside and they couldnt see any of the bad.. Savelle pulled out a Brookside Police Department badge before Hoover officers arrived, according to the report that cited witnesses and the presence of cameras. The town of Brookside, Alabama holds municipal court once a month. A court worker told her she would have to plead guilty or go to driving school. He decided to plead guilty and pay the fines after seeing how others were treated. We had no knowledge of Mike Jones whereabouts after his resignation January 25, Mayor Mike Bryan said. And a Brookside man told AL.com police in the town pulled him over with blue lights and told him there would be consequences if he posted more about the police on Facebook. In another case, Brookside police last year confiscated a 2014 Honda Civic owned by a man named Sean Wattson, even though Wattson was not driving and was not in the car, according to a lawsuit he filed against the town. He built the department from a one-man operation to a ticket-hungry department with 10 blacked-out vehicles, two drug-sniffing dogs and a riot control vehicle. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 each carrying fines. I feel like they cant claim innocence in this situation., They saw dollar signs, she said of the mayors and the council. You may not use this site for the purposes of furnishing consumer reports about search subjects or for any use prohibited by the FCRA. A former judge appointed to investigate claims of police abuses in the tiny Alabama town of Brookside, just north of Birmingham, has found a pattern of bullying that preyed on the poor and. The town could benefit from a formal complaint procedure to provide real time information on alleged racial profiling incidents or incidents of alleged misbehavior of any kind -- at the individual officer level. Givan and Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway want to hear more, and will hold a town hall meeting today. "You're taking the money for them to potentially get that light fixed by making them pay a fine.". He said hed like to see even more growth in revenue from fines and forfeitures. And local court officials have thrown out or called into question more than 100 cases involving Brookside police. It is the second time in four days a former Brookside police officer has been jailed. What I noticed the pattern to be among us is this: If you are in the car by yourself, youre gonna get a ticket, she said. AL.com found court records that detail a string of financial troubles for Jones, as state and federal lawsuits reveal employees, lawyers, creditors and others who claim Jones company, Event Operations Group, did not pay them or failed to live up to obligations. He feels the police saw him as prey, and treated him as such. Brookside, Alabama - a poor town, 70% white, 21% black with a small but growing Hispanic population and a median income "well below the state average" has made national news because of the Brookside Police Department (BPD). Sorry for the typo, the mayor wrote. I clearly did not run the stop sign as I had just seen them sitting on top of I-22 overpass. She had an asthma attack and a panic attack, but when she knocked on the door to alert a guard, a jailer said if she continued to knock she would be charged with attempting to escape. The problem for those alleging misconduct is that officers may be immune from lawsuits if their actions are found to be a part of their official duties, Dawson said. Mike Jones actually knew Bo when Bo was a kid in Explorers, McDonald said. Yet the town with no traffic lights collected $487 in fines and forfeitures in 2020 for every man, woman and child, though many of those fined were merely passing by on I-22. According to AL.com's investigation, Jones, who was hired in 2018, built a police department of 10 or more full-time and part-time officers to patrol Brookside's 6 miles of roads and 1 mile jurisdiction along Interstate 22, a corridor between Birmingham and Memphis, Tennessee. The deputy has since also issued a speeding ticket to go along with the impersonation charge.. The town now faces 13 lawsuits. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Police must direct traffic before the 1 p.m. court session starts. The lowest-paid officers made $12 an hour. What I had watched in court with the use of this particular charge, I mean, just to be quite frank, it offended me that a court would act that way and that a city would act that way toward people who really dont have that kind of money, he testified. Town leadership should be proactive in providing oversight, accountability, and checks and balances in the Departments management and ensure that police operations comply with regulatory, judicial, ethical, and financial safeguards. Which is exactly what the town is banking on, according to those who have watched Brookside grow into one of Alabamas biggest, most troublesome traffic traps. An investigator with the AG responded to her, and she spelled it out again in 2020. I honestly dont think the towns gonna be able to come back from this. They were shining these flashlights in my car and it was daylight. His statement said he is not taking questions. What happens is when it gets to be so egregious, when you go a little bit too far and you take it to an extreme as the city of Brookside did, it just wasnt about selective enforcement, it becomes routine, Givan said. She is unsure if he called the man. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). The conclusion reads: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to let a class-action lawsuit go forward against an Alabama town accused of policing for profit with excessive fines and aggressive enforcement of local laws. The Alabama Legislature this session passed a bill in response to Brookside that would cap at 10 percent the amount of revenue from fines and fees that a municipality can take in. Ultimately another officer took Perez to his friends house to retrieve her ID, he said. But fines and. One of those visions: increasing officer pay to $18 per hour with better benefits in order . I think its one of those situations that could possibly bring in the feds with some oversight, he said. Smart, targeted strategies administered in an even-handed fashion will maximize results and public support for Brookside. "Even if you legitimately stop someone because they need a light on their car fixed, if you give them a ticket, how does that meet the goal that a person's car be made safer?" Givan is still pushing for change in Brookside and says those responsible should be held accountable. This is at the corner of Roberta Road and Mulberry Road, which is far away from their city limits.. He had a net worth of $55,000 and a monthly income of $2,244, according to federal records. Jones was stopped on April 12 by a Covington County deputy after being clocked driving 78 mph in a 55 zone on Alabama 55 south. I see a 600% increase thats a failure. Jones, accompanied by his lawyer, Corey Bryan of Andalusia, turned himself in at the Covington County Jail on Monday, Covington County Sheriff Blake Turman said. Which is another problem altogether, Sheriff Pettway said. People stopped by Brookside police more than a mile and half outside the town limits. Neither the police nor the town have responded to questions since the original story ran. Mr. Bryan, as un-involved as he sounds, is as culpable as the others.. Allan Armstrong, one of a group of lawyers who filed the complaint, said Brookside violated basic American rights. Sheriff Pettway gaped at the Brookside ratio. Brookside has two drug-sniffing dogs one named K9 Cash to search the cars of stopped motorists. They often say they had no idea why they were pulled over while passing near Brookside on Interstate 22. Oftentimes, a person's decision to forgo paying a fine goes deeper, Sarathy Jones said. In Brookside, complaints about retaliation have come time and time again, as in the case of Rev. Many of the complaints regarding how police enforced traffic stops centered around officers pulling people over outside their jurisdiction and even police jurisdiction signs posted beyond city limits. But lawyers and law enforcement officers across central Alabama have raised questions about things in Brookside they say they have never otherwise come across. But its a common charge in Brookside. He served a months suspension, with pay in the wake of news coverage about the arrest. Updated 5:15 p.m. May 2 to add Brookside response. Advocates for justice reform, cops in other jurisdictions, even Jefferson Countys top law enforcement officials, have begun to question the towns tactics, and its need for an expanding force. Dozens of people who claim they were victimized by Brookside Police have come forward to tell their stories. He said the case remains active and under investigation, and he is trying to determine if the Chevy Tahoe that Jones was driving once belonged to the town of Brookside. The town survives on the fringes of Birmingham with tax revenue from the Dollar General, which forms the totality of its commercial district. Sheriff Pettway said those who face charges in Brookside and want to ensure justice can get a bond and appeal their case. He waved it around the restaurant, in front of customers and staff. Its unheard of.. Simon led an in-depth and months long investigation into whether officers in the Brookside Police Department participated in racial profiling. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriffs department for service. Its not about making a dollar, Jones said. There are only 1,253 people in Brookside, and one store, the Dollar General. I was just looking at him like, so this is what this stop is about?. After I told him that I would not, he reported that they have two warrants for my arrest. Its more important now than ever before that law enforcement maintain high levels of professionalism and integrity, he said. You know, weve had a lot of issues with Brookside.. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Jones could not be reached for comment on this report. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. she said. About a year ago, the former head of the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police received several complaints about the Brookside Police Department. However, an initial review of the complaint reveals that any allegations of conspiracy are false and without merit and the Town vehemently denies such allegations.. I dont condone it, but you know, Im not the chief out there.. I know that.. Mike Jones, former police chief in the troubled Alabama town of Brookside, was arrested today on felony charges of impersonating a peace officer during a traffic stop in south Alabama. He built the department from a one-man operation to a ticket-hungry department with 10 blacked-out vehicles, two drug-sniffing dogs and a riot control vehicle. Brookside, which in 2018 had one full time police officer, now parks a riot control vehicle townspeople call it a tank outside the municipal complex and community center. I can stand a thief better than a dirty cop. Ainsworth, also a Republican, told AL.com that his office would look at legislative options to determine how to prevent towns from taking advantage of drivers passing through on highways, a problem lawmakers acknowledged is happening across the state. It frightened her, and led to more trouble. For Michelle Jones, it has been a dedicated three-year fight. Savelle was 32 at the time of his Hoover arrest, and was shown to have previous arrests for public intoxication, DUI, public lewdness, as well as multiple drug charges, the Hoover report said. Alabama Senate candidate Lisa Ward said ex-Chief Jones tried to intimidate her in a social media message after she shared the AL.com story on Facebook. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Brookside's police chief resigned in January 2022 following accusations of aggressive policing. Michelle Jones made an official complaint to the Alabama Attorneys Generals office three years ago, arguing that Brookside police stopped her out of jurisdiction, issued a bogus citation and threatened her with more charges after she criticized them on Facebook. And so thats why I decided to fight.. More than half the Brookside officers resigned or were fired this year as more and more people came forward to tell their stories about mistreatment in Brookside. Brookside Police did patrol the 1.5-mile stretch of Interstate 22 within their jurisdiction and wrote tickets that brought in $82,467 in fines. This is shocking, said Crowder. Hall did appeal, and a Jefferson County judge ultimately dismissed the charges. Third, police leadership and individual officers would likely benefit from training focused not only on racial profiling, but also on overall traffic enforcement strategy. The military-styled vehicles have already been returned to the State, our police cars have been re-striped, and the Town is investing in new, easily identifiable uniforms for the police officers., Civil RICO case filed again by John Archibald. They had blinders on. Terms and Conditions. Brookside police gave her a ticket in May of 2019 for running a stop sign at Roberta Road and Cherry Avenue across I-22 from Brookside. Across the country, the average size of a force is one officer for every 588 residents, according to a Governing Magazine study that examined federal statistics. Ramon Perez showed up for court in December ready to fight traffic citations he got in Brookside. Brookside Police Department Contact Information Address, Phone Number, and Fax Number for Brookside Police Department, a Police Department, at Main Street, Brookside AL. But when she did, the unmarked SUV pulled into the street, crossed the center line and sped toward her car, blue lights flashing. Most of the vehicles Brookside Police drive are unmarked, and tinted. Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality. When Jones was hired as chief in 2018, he was the only full-time police officer, he said in sworn testimony for a lawsuit filed against him and the city. she added. His phone is not accepting calls and he did not return emails to an address listed as belonging to him. (Joe Songer for AL.com).Joe Songer. "Ferguson made us realize it wasn't just Ferguson," said Priya Sarathy Jones, the national campaign director at the Fines and Fees Justice Center,which advocates for fees to be eliminated in the justice system and fines to be equitably enforced. Theres no way I was going to run that stop sign.. There is no trust," Representative Juandalynn Givan said. I saw him and we looked eye to eye, the Chelsea business owner said. Third party advertisements support hosting, listing verification, updates, and site maintenance. He was very ugly from the start.. Arrest powers are not confined to city limits or jurisdictional boundaries except within the State of Alabama.. Some of the charges Savelle has faced predate his hiring at Brookside. 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