The Alabama Senate could soon vote on legislation allowing for a state takeover of the Montgomery Police Department if it doesn’t significantly increase its officer ranks.
Continued discussion and details about how the state would be reimbursed for its efforts is expected as the bill moves to the chamber floor.
The bill, which supporters say will improve public safety, received a favorable vote Tuesday in the Senate County and Municipal Government Committee despite objections from Democrats, including Sen. Kirk Hatcher. He represents most of the city and called the bill an unfunded mandate.
Senate Bill 298 would give law enforcement agencies in Class 3 municipalities five years to have at least two full-time officers for every 1,000 residents. There are yearly benchmarks set in the legislation that must be met to hold off any state action. Huntsville and Montgomery are the only two Class 3 municipalities in the state, but Montgomery’s struggle in recent years to fully staff its department prompted Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, to sponsor the bill.
The legislation says the city would have to reimburse the state for any costs associated with its involvement in department operations and hiring. A fiscal note on the bill says it would raise costs for the city by an undetermined amount.
Hatcher offered an amendment that would put the financial burden on the state, not the capital city. Republicans voted it down.
Barfoot pushed back on Democrats calling the bill an unfunded mandate.
He said the city budgets each year for well over 400 officers, the target number under his bill, but has about 220 to 230 officers, according to numbers he’s seen.
“The city has already budgeted for an amount over and above anything that this bill calls for,” Barfoot said.
Sen. Greg Albritton, the Senate General Fund budget committee chairman, opposed Hatcher’s amendment and expressed concern about the bill’s potential impact on the state’s coffers.
Albritton said there is a “growing trend” of the state providing services to cities without compensation. Pending legislation would give the Legislature the authority to hire more security, usually state troopers, around the capitol complex and downtown Montgomery.
In response to crime in Montgomery and elsewhere, Gov. Kay Ivey in 2024 introduced her Safe Alabama bill package to improve public safety. That package allocated $3 million per year to fund a permanent, 24-man Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit in Montgomery.
“We need to keep our people safe, but we’ve got to make sure we do it responsibly, properly and that we have the money to do it with and (clarify) where that money is going to come from,” Albritton said in the committee.
While he voted to get the bill out of committee, he later told Alabama Daily News he would oppose it in the Senate if stronger requirements about how and when the state would be reimbursed aren’t added to the bill.