During a recent appearance on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal”, Attorney General Steve Marshall offered high praise for the Metro Crime Suppression Unit currently operating in Montgomery.
The state’s top law enforcement officer, however, cautioned that the team’s achievements may be hard to replicate in other Alabama cities, particularly Birmingham.
“Montgomery has been a remarkable success. I’ll lay a lot of that credit at the feet of [ALEA Secretary] Hal Taylor and what they’ve done with ALEA. Derrick Cunningham, who is a remarkable sheriff here in Montgomery County, as well as the willingness of the city of Montgomery and the police department to embrace the opportunity for help,” Marshall said.
“We’ve been pleased to be able to offer investigators from our office, prosecutors in my office have taken a load off of the DA’s office here in Montgomery County with new cases that have come in. So it’s been a collaborative effort where lots of people came together to address a problem. The best thing is that the people that live in Montgomery feel safer. I think that’s the most tangible benefit that we can provide.”
Marshall explained why Birmingham’s crime situation is more difficult and complex than in Montgomery.
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“The resources the legislature is giving, I think is a great effort. But Birmingham’s different than Montgomery,” he said.
“You know, here we have one large municipality. We have a sheriff’s office with the resources, with a county commission that was willing to step up. I give our county commission chairman a great deal of credit here for recognizing that need. In Birmingham, you’ve got multiple small jurisdictions. You have a little different dynamic as it relates to their ability to come together and share resources. Because if you sort of look at what happened in Montgomery, the sheriff devoted resources to the city. You had our office devote resources to the city. You had ALEA devote resources to the city. The question is whether or not in Birmingham, some of those other jurisdictions are willing to be able to help.”
For law enforcement to have the same level of success in Birmingham, Marshall said that authorities in the city must “embrace a greater good.”
“The question is whether or not that similar sentiment can go along with what’s going on in Birmingham,” Marshall said. “Look, the more resources we can throw, the more bodies we can throw at a criminal justice problem, I think the better. The fact that people are engaged and motivated to address violent crime is always a good thing.”
“I think we have to be careful in saying just because it worked in Montgomery means it can be equally successful somewhere else with a different dynamic and different people involved in different issues that may come into play.”
Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
