Plain Old Justice

In 2018, when Brookside, Alabama hired Mike Jones (above) as its police chief, the town had only one full–time officer: Jones. He recently quit, leaving a force with about 9 full–time cops and some part–timers.

How could a town of less than 1,500, with only one retail business - a Dollar General store - afford a police department that large? By writing tickets and by seizing property under the state's civil asset forfeiture law.

Between 2018 and 2020, total revenue from fines increased 640 percent.  In 2020, fines and forfeitures raked in $640,000, more than half the town's budget.

Chief Jones has denied that the police department relies on this revenue but it's difficult to follow the money. Accountants who audited the town report that it doesn't have a written budget.

Jones has been quoted as saying "We don't like writing tickets."  But he also has expressed disappointment that the town is not collecting more.

"I see a 600 percent increase – that's a failure," he told a reporter for AL.com. "If you had more officers and more productivity you'd have more. I think it could be more."

Interstate Highway 22 goes through this Birmingham exurb, but reportedly, the Brookside officers also ticket Interstate drivers outside that 1.5 mile stretch. Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway said that his office receives calls about Brookside officers going outside their jurisdiction to stop motorists: "Most of the time people get stopped they're going to get a ticket. And they're saying they were nowhere near Brookside."

John Archibold, a columnist at Alabama.com, reported that there is actually a state law prohibiting police in small towns from issueing speeding tickets to motorists on an Interstate highway. (The law passed after a state legislator got ticketed in a speed trap.) 

According to Archibold, the Brookside police get around this restriction by issuing tickets for other violations, such as driving too long in the left lane or having a light out. Reportedly, sometimes they make up a violation.

The county's district attorney, Danny Carr, said that a driver going through the town could "fall into a black hole" financially.  New reports describe instances in which Brookside police ticketed drivers for violations they did not commit and even for offenses that did not exist in the law.

The Brookside police harvest additional cash from imarijuana law enforcement.  One lawyer said that when an officer pulled over his client and found a joint in the car, Brookville charged the man not only with possession of marijuana but also with multiple counts of possessing drug paraphernalia. The paraphernalia: a plastic bag which held the cannabis, a jar that once held it, rolling papers, and cigar wraps.

Another lawyer, Bill Dawson, said that when the police caught his client with a joint, they charged him with one count of marijuana possession and with a separate count for drug paraphernalia, meaning the cigarette paper around it.

Reportedly, while drivers are in court paying their traffic fines, Brookside cops are outside walking drug-sniffing dogs around the motorists' cars.  The police department has two such dogs.  One is name "K9 Axel" and the other, tellingly, "K9 Cash."

Jpmes , who wore 4 stars on his uniform, used a lot of this revenue to build his conception of a big city police force.  The Brookside Police Department website bragged that "since accepting the position of Chief of Brookside [Jones] has created a full time police department, with multiple divisions all while still serving the community with his team."  The tiny department even obtained a riot control vehicle on loan from a state agency.

Incidentally, one statement on the police department website should be mentioned simply because of its irony.  The website claimed that the police department's patrol division was "dedicated to serving the community of Brookside, you will see these wonderful men and women responding to calls for service and taking proactive steps to ensuring your safety and prosperity."  Uh, whose prosperity?

Officers do not wear Brookside insignia.  At least sometimes, they have signed tickets not with their names but with the word "Agent" followed by the officer's initials.

Agents "J" and "K"

Retired Birmingham police officer Montague Minnifield, who is black, was riding in the passenger seat when Brookfield police pulled over his girlfriend, who was driving.  Supposedly, her license plate light was not working.

According to Minnifield, one officer approached on the driver's side and another on his side of the car.  They were dressed in dark uniforms and wore masks.

The officer who tapped on the passenger-side window identified himself as "Agent J."

Minnifield replied, "Agent J? I guess this guy over here is agent K, huh?"  When the man agreed Minnifield said, "Oh really? So y’all are the men in black now, huh?"

Even though Minnifield was in the passenger's seat, the officer asked him for his driver's license, but Minnifield did not have it with him.  The officer said that unless Minnifield provided the license, he would be arrested.

The Brookside officers removed Minnifield from the car, cuffed him, put him in the back of their patrol car in a "stress position," and left him there for half an hour before releasing him without charging him with anything.  The officers did write a ticket for the nonworking license plate light.

Allegations of Racism

Plaintiffs have filed at least 5 lawsuits Brookside and its police department. Allegations include racism and retaliation. Rev. Vincent Witt alleges that while he was driving through Brookside in a new car with a temporary license tag, an officer pulled him over. According to the lawsuit, when Witt asked a question, the officer replied "Look, you f****** n*****, just stay out of Brookside."

Witt called the police department and complained. Later, Witt and his sister were arrested and charged with impersonating police officers. However, his sister had not even been in the car when Witt was stopped. The Brookside police department posted mugshots of both Witt and his sister on its website. 

Later, Brookside dropped the charges and removed the photographs from its webpage. After Witt sued, Brookside defended by asserting qualified immunity. However, the judge denied immunity for all the alleged conduct except the initial traffic stop.

A court decides the qualified immunity issue before trial because a grant of immunity spares the defendants not only from having to pay damages but also from the burden of going to trial. At the pretrial stage, to decide the motion, the judge assumes the allegations are true.

In denying immunity, the judge called the alleged conduct reprehensible, harkening "back to the dark period in our nation's history when officers displayed racist tendencies and weaponized their badges to keep minorities from certain communities under the guise of 'law enforcement.'"

Public Complaints

The lawsuits, and news stories and news stories have put Jones in the public eye. On February 1, 2022, more than 200 people attended a meeting hearing complaints about the Brookside police.  At the meeting, Brookside's mayor announced that the town had retained a former circuit court judge to investigate allegations of racial profiling.

Shortly after that meeting, Chief Jones resigned. As of this writing, however, his picture remained posted on the Brookside police department's website.

Recently, both Republicans and Democrats in Alabama have promised to take action about policing in Brookside.  Lieutenant Govenor Will Ainsworth, a Republican, pledged, "We're going to get something done on that." Options include prohibiting police departments from receiving revenue from the tickets its officers issue.

Speed Traps Galore

It's worth mentioning that Brookside isn't the only Alabama town to operate a speed trap.  In fact, Brookside only ranked sixth on a recent list.  And here is a list not limited to Alabama.

In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock Presents aired an episode about a speed trap. It will make you angry until the last scene. You can watch it free online.

 

Screenshots from "The Crooked Road." Other photographs from the Brookside, Alabama, Police Department Website.