There is still an ongoing debate over this issue of police staffing in some of Alabama’s biggest cities and whether the Legislature needs to step in to combat crime.
Legislation that would have provided minimum staffing requirements for Class 3 municipal law enforcement agencies failed to pass in the 2026 Legislative session. State lawmakers are expected to bring up a similar bill next year.
“I think that conversation will be will be front and center when the legislature comes back in in in 27,” State Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville) said on WVNN. “You know, we do have some cities that we continue to see violent crime on the increase, and we had that bill ready to go, and that related to to the state, the ALEA takeover of cities. We wanted to fine tune that piece of legislation.”
Reynolds said there were problems with the specific language in the bill that needed to be fixed, which is one of the reasons it didn’t pass.
“I had a substitute for that bill if it had made it to the House floor, and that was just kind of better clear up some language about the definition of a police officer, and also about there was some language in there about taking rebuild Alabama monies away from those cities…So we had some language in there to clean that up, but I think we’ll continue to look at that,” Reynolds added. “We really want to look at Montgomery specifically, see how they’ve done on their recruiting, and look at their numbers. And I think a Tommy Tuberville as governor would support that 100%.”
The measure is still receiving pushback from Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, who believes it’s an overreach when it comes to fighting crime.
“So, we wanted to be sure that we didn’t seize local control through the legislature based on staffing numbers,” Reed said on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” on Friday. “We all want to see the numbers be as high as they can. Everybody feels safe. My mom feels safer. My church members feel safer. My neighbors feel safer. So, we all want to see that, but it has to be done the right way. I believed then, and I believe now, that that was a bad bill. It was a bill that was a power grab, in my opinion, that wasn’t needed, in particular, without conversation with fellow State Senator Kirk Hatcher, who represents two-thirds of Montgomery, much less myself. And we said that to Senator [Will] Barfoot.”
Reed said there are better ways to approach the problem in Alabama’s capital city.
“Getting more cops on the street isn’t hard, believe it or not,” he said. “Getting quality people to serve and protect our communities who have the right mental makeup, the right disposition to respond to a break-in, much less a homicide, but also can deal with something that doesn’t need to be de-escalated — someone who is in mental distress, somebody who is having a drug-related issue that doesn’t require a heavy-handed approach. It takes a special person to really be on the frontlines of public safety the way so many of our men and women are here in Montgomery and around the state of Alabama.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
