MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Two of the eight bills included in Gov. Kay Ivey’s Safe Alabama bill package, designed to improve public safety and reduce crime, sailed through the Alabama House on Tuesday in a bipartisan showing.
“I think it’s one of those things that brought out a lot of emotions, and I do believe this is why we do what we do, try to do the peoples’ work, and it showed that today,” said House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, speaking with members of the press outside the House chamber of the Alabama State House in Montgomery.
The two bills were House Bills 188 and 199, which would establish a scholarship program for the families of law enforcement officers, and expand the state’s ability to electronically monitor juvenile delinquents, respectively. Neither bill saw any opposition on the House floor.
House Republicans and Democrats say they want to curb violent crime in the state.
Among them was Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, who displayed large prints of Birmingham gun violence victims, including Birmingham Firefighter Jordan Melton, who was shot and killed in 2023 while on duty, and Birmingham Police Sgt. Wytasha Carter, who was shot and killed in early 2019 after responding to a burglary.
Speaking on HB188, Givan spoke of Carter’s murder to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, who retired as the assistant chief for the Birmingham Police Department after serving for 31 years.
“When I raise this issue of crime up, I remember Treadaway standing there that morning, with tears in his eyes because he had lost a fallen partner, a police officer,” Givan said. “This number, 1,077 deaths, this is just the city of Birmingham alone since 2017. Last year, over 150 people were killed in Birmingham.”
The bill, which would be funded to the tune of $10 million through the Education Trust Fund, would cover up to $3,000 per dependent of a law enforcement officer per academic period, and applies to those under 27 years old. A substitute to the bill that would establish an additional revenue source by creating a new state license plate was unanimously adopted, as was the bill itself.
House Bill 199 was sponsored by Rep. Travis Hendrix, D-Fairfield, a sergeant in the Birmingham Police Department who had served under Treadaway before his retirement in 2020. Under HB199, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles would be authorized to provide electronic monitoring services for juvenile delinquents, thereby expanding the practice for municipalities without sufficient resources.
Much like HB188, Hendrix’s bill sailed through to final passage, and was adopted unanimously by the body.
Standing alongside Treadaway just outside the House chamber, Hendrix, who called Treadaway a “great mentor,” commended his colleagues for the swift passage of his bill, and argued that the issue of public safety was something that should transcend partisan lines.
“This was a bipartisan effort; If it wasn’t for my colleagues, this would not have been possible,” Hendrix said.
“It doesn’t matter where you live, who you are, everybody wants to feel safe, and so when we come together as one to accomplish a common goal, to make everybody feel safe, I think we did justice for everybody that lives in the state of Alabama.”
Treadaway concurred with Hendrix, and said that as a former member of law enforcement with five children, that financial assistance with higher education would be an effective tool at helping retain members of law enforcement, particularly in the state’s metro areas.
“I think it’s very important that we can deal with public safety in a bipartisan way, that’s the one issue that we deal with down here that should be bipartisan, and that’s what you saw here today,” Treadaway said.
Ledbetter told Alabama Daily News it is his goal that the entire Safe Alabama bill package reach Ivey’s desk before the first legislative break, which is the second week of March.
Other bills in the package would: increase funding for crime suppression units; ban by state law “Glock switches”; expand the crimes for which judges can deny bail; expand the list of crimes for which people are no longer allowed to carry firearms to include all felonies; and give law enforcement officers more civil and criminal immunity.
There is pushback on the later from House Democrats.