Don't drive through Brookside, Alabama if you want to avoid getting a ticket or having your vehicle towed. The town has become a poster child for tickets traps. How bad is Brookside? Brookside is so bad that even the Sheriff and District Attorney said it goes too far. The Birmingham News reported:
Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city’s total income. And the police chief has called for more. The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 – none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.... By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 – each carrying fines. That’s a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town... “It’s my understanding that a guy can go out there and I mean, he can fall into a black hole,” Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr said of drivers getting entangled financially. “You know, we’ve had a lot of issues with Brookside.”... Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway said the same.... “We get calls about Brookside quite regularly because they really go outside their jurisdiction to stop people,” Pettway said. “Most of the time people get stopped, they’re going to get a ticket. And they’re saying they were nowhere near Brookside.”... Police stops soared between 2018 and 2020. Fines and forfeitures – seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things – doubled from 2018 to 2019. In 2020 they came to $610,000. That’s 49% of the small town’s skyrocketing revenue.... Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones, who spearheaded the change and grew the police department tenfold, at least, calls the town’s policing “a positive story.” Mayor Mike Bryan – a former councilman who assumed his position last year after the death of the previous mayor – sits and nods in agreement. Jones said crime when he took over was higher than it appeared from numbers the town reported to the state. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s department for service. He said he’d like to see even more growth in revenue from fines and forfeitures. “I see a 600% increase – that’s a failure. If you had more officers and more productivity you’d have more,” Jones said. “I think it could be more.”.... 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. By last summer, he said in a deposition, Brookside had hired eight additional full-time officers and several part-timers Asked in December how many officers were on staff, he refused to say, citing “security” concerns, though police staff sizes are reported regularly to the government for public consumption......However, that wasn't enough so the city hired six more police officers. Keep in mind this is a town slightly smaller than Pelahatchie (7 full-time police officers.)
How tough is this town? It is so tough it even has a "tank". Seriously. You can't make this up.
Note: The sight of that whatever it is brings this old clip to mind.
37 comments:
Rankin County has an MRAP and it’s not a tank.
An MRAP is susceptible to a shaped charge fired from a recoilless rifle.
Tanks have adapted modern ablative armor to use combat that vulnerability.
I thought a police state is what the right is shooting for?
Don't give baby chowke any ideas, right?
That is not a tank.
That vehicle moves people/things safely behind armor. An armored car moves your money around and no one bitches. Don’t be that person fish. You’re better than that.
Mayor Melton had a lot more fun and entertaining adventures in his "Mobile Command Center" aka RV.
@12:18........the left has spent a year arresting and dining people for leaving their homes and then another year arresting and dining people for not taking an injection...the RIGHT wants a police state?
https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/pastor-sister-say-rogue-alabama-police-force-sought-revenge.html
Duh. I put tank in quotes for a reason. It was written tongue in cheek.
Yeah, towns of 1,000 should have these toys. That is also why there is a Sheriff. Sheriff usually has more resources than towns this small, especially when the town is in Jefferson County.
Reminds me of Wilmer AL and Golden Meadow LA.
Speed traps are not new, but creating a military-style police force for them is way out of line.
A couple of good fat judgments against the city will stop this shit. I think the state can also revoke their municipal charter, so that would be a good move as well.
An MRAP would be a leftists wet dream, you don’t say the correct pronoun and it rolls up with the Gestapo to take you away.
maybe all the stinking rednecks in this state ,who think law enforcement are gods chosen, could all move to this town.
1:35 pm beat me to it. Wilmer, Alabama, that is! That used to be the worst, that I can recall.
Not familiar with Golden Meadow, LA, but Wilmer eventually had at least a few of their (former) cops go to prison over their tactics.
My suggestion for reforming the police. Not de-funding.
In my opinion speeding fines should not go to the town. They should go to the state or charity. The purpose of writing speeding tickets should be public safety, not funding the town. Same goes for civil asset forfeitures.
This is what the town or Ridgeland is becoming...particularly the cowboys on Harley Crotch-Rockets. That Thumpa-Thumpa Potahda Potahda can be quite orgasmic some say. If you take Old Canton from Madison into Ridgeland, the speed limit changes four or five times between the MRA intersection and Rice Road in Ridgeland. These boys get real excited. Causes an adrenalin rush higher than two Cream Filled Donuts.
Don't forget Ferriday, Louisiana.
(About ten miles across the bridge from Natchez).
"The Sheriff" and "the DA" are first gen black officials and BLM supporters. The woman, Crowder, is a former Leftie reporter gone to 3rd tier law school, now pushing Get Outta Jail cuz you're black prison reform. Her buddies in the MSM did this schtick, just as Leftie DA Carr is up for re election.
Don't let the hook choke you as you are reeled in.
Please ignore the drive bys in B'ham and 6 x higher death rate among blacks.
Please keep helping Donner and our White Savior Libs to create the Bronx/Detroit/Memphis/Jackistan Woke-topia everywhere.
Do better.
@3:03 PM - is a lying troll. Most of that stretch of road is in Madison the City, and the speed limit changes twice, not four or five times. I drive that stretch twice daily and have never seen a Ridgeland PD patrol car.
Wilmer, AL was doing the same thing. My understanding is that the state didn’t like the negative national press and asked the town to stop. When they didn’t, the legislature revoked the town’s charter so they couldn’t have a mayor/city police force. Seems like a logical next step if things continue down this path.
"I drive that stretch twice daily and have never seen a Ridgeland PD patrol car."
Then your sight equals that of Ronnie Milsap. Before you go under the Trace, you're in Ridgeland. The Harley jocks park there routinely. The speed limit at the South end of the airport will suddenly change from 45 to 35 and back to 40 before you hit Rice. I didn't mention 'Ridgeland PD patrol car'...pay attention, I mentioned the motorcycle cowboys.
You can also take McClellan at the church over to 51 where the Ridgeland limit suddenly dips to 25 or 30. Surprise, Surprise, Gomer...there he is waiting to trap you! Then they're off for a candy bar at Valero.
Now who's the troll?
2:10PM
When you say “stinking redneck,” can you please clarify the term?
Asking for a blog friend.
to 2:10....well , we will start with all the good ole boys who drive around in their 80,000$ jacked uo, twin cab pickups with three headlights on each side designed to blind other drivers at night, festooned with stickers that say yeti coolers, browning, drake, sitka, with a pair of brass bull balls hanging underneath the trailer hitch.
tell me,,,,,,,,,,,,does that sound familiar? show this to your blog friend.
Beware Robertsdale, AL, same stretch as Wilmer on way to Beach from Jackson,it too has a speed trap reputation. Two of my relatives were ticketed where speed limit varies confusingly from about 35 to 55.
@1:29 AM - Nope, try again Sparky. Madison the City goes all the way to the Trace, and there is no "45" speed limit between Hoy Road and the Trace. In case you have reading comprehension issues, that area is NOT in Ridgeland.
What's wrong Sparky, have you be receiving tickets from Ridgeland PD?
Heeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwwww
@9:07 AM yep, but you left out the extremely loud exhaust systems and extreme tail-gating by these small peckered cucks.
Madison The City run “speed traps” on North Livington Road off HWY 463. Watch for a SUV sitting quietly parked alone side the roadway until you unsuspectingly approach, then flashing lights!!!
@11:52 AM That traffic enforcement is because local residents have complained to the MPD about SPEEDERS. If you don't speed, you won't get a speeding ticket, doofus.
I can't wait for Rep. Jill Ford's legislation to be signed into law that will make texting and talking on a cellphone while driving a MISDEMEANOR with a $500 fine.
to 12:42........what you can't wait for is wanting to live in a police state. how's this....i'll buy you a one way ticket to the police state of your choice.
may i suggest communist cuba or red china.
you will be real happy there.
Madison the City’s police budget is funded from these and other speed traps around “the city”
12:42 - Jill Ford's texting bill will be just as DOA as her mary-ju-wanner bill was. She's pouting. The lady in blue thought she was going to make an impact this year.
9:45 - You obviously cannot read.
I heard that a black hole can bring a change of luck, right?
??? Police are back to running blocks and pulling people over ? Strange. My guess is that this was a slow news day and this ALABAMA issue is a coupe years old.
Apparently that police chief has a string of issued predating his police chief ambitions. Lots of stuff on social media about him stiffing people and not paying and other shady financial dealings and several lawsuits against him from it. Seems this might be a ploy for a lot of money changing hands and he sees it ripe for the picking to settle outstanding debt. That much money and blatant over policing for revenue has embezzlement written all over it.
If you would like to call Police Chief Mike Jones and tell him just how big of a POS he is, his phone# is 281-330-8004
Also, Alexander Shunnarah will have a class action suit filed soon. Billboards to follow.
7:10 - You'll never go back.
"Nope, try again Sparky. Madison the City goes all the way to the Trace, and there is no "45" speed limit between Hoy Road and the Trace."
Sorry, Sparkette, but the speed limit as soon as you pass the last church going south at the airport is 45 mph. Hoy Road is not part of this discussion.
Madison PD is camped out between the hangars and MRA but this is about the Ridgeland Cowboy Motor Patrol.
2:18 AM
You are correct. I drove this stretch this afternoon. Driving south on Old Canton, the speed limit is 35 mph just south of Ridgecrest Baptist Church. The speed limit changes to 45 mph as you pass the Methodist Church (as you say, the last church heading south). There is another 45 mph sign near the next traffic signal at Tidewater Lane. But….as you approach the entrance to the Natchez Trace the speed limit changes to 35 mph. This is as you are entering Ridgeland city limits.
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