Birmingham could soon have 200 citizens patrolling the city’s streets, but concerns remain

Birmingham could have up to 200 sets of eyes and ears watching crime on the city’s streets after an ordinance was passed at the request of Mayor Randall Woodfin and Police Chief Scott Thurmond.

The City Council on Tuesday approved the plan to establish a citizen watchdog patrol, but not without concerns expressed by some of the council members.

“I have a lot of safety issues with this,” Councilman Hunter Williams said, citing officer morale among other issues.

“I think if we’re going to provide the vehicles, there’s already a lot of vehicle needs within your department that I think would be better served for actual officers than old ladies reporting things.”

Under the program, Birmingham residents will volunteer and be trained to patrol the city’s neighborhoods and report criminal activity to the police.

Assistant City Attorney Tracy Roberts and Thurmond explained that the program, which is in place in other Alabama cities like Chelsea as well as nationally, uses volunteers only as observers. They have no powers of arrest.

Typically, they said, volunteers were in vehicles marked with some sort of city identification and provided with T-shirts, caps and IDs.

The vehicles would not be marked as a police car and would not have red and blue lights or a siren. Often, Roberts said, the vehicles have green lights.

Volunteers, Roberts said, would have to agree to a background check and fingerprinting. They must be of good moral character and have no criminal record.

Thurmond said the volunteers will be trained through the Birmingham Police Academy.

“They’ll communicate with our officers to relay something they notice, but that’s all they have to do — just observe,” the chief said. “Be our eyes and ears, if you will.”

Thurmond pointed to a similar program previously held in the Woodlawn community.

“It was successful,” he said. “It was very helpful for the neighborhoods because they were visible and could feed us information so we could take action quickly.”

Several council members raised questions and concerns.

“I’m not totally against it, but I worry about the safety of the citizens because we struggle so much to get them to report something like code enforcement and it’s really hard for us to get information from Crime Stoppers or even when you or the mayor asks for information ” Councilwoman Crystal Smitherman said.

“I saw a study and usually units like this don’t last more than four years and they have trouble recruiting,” she said.

Thurmond said the department’s recruiting officers will also be recruiting for the Citizens Observer Patrol.

He said the volunteers will serve two-year terms and will go two to a vehicle for safety reasons.

Councilman JT Moore agreed that the Woodlawn program has been successful.

“We had a lot of residents who were actually upset that it was gone because they were able to keep an eye on those areas that most people either didn’t know about or were too afraid to go,” Moore said.

But, he asked, why did that program end?

Thurmond said the program was funded by grants, and at one point they struggled to retain volunteers.

Williams said a volunteer in the Woodlawn program was beaten while on active duty as a citizen patrol.

“That, combined with funding issues, was what put an end to it,” Williams said.

Council President Darrell O’Quinn asked about liability to the city if a volunteer violates the policy while on duty.

“Preparation is the key and what they are allowed to do and not do,” he said.

As long as they follow the rules and regulations set by the police department.

“I know the program has been successful in the Woodlawn area, but that was during a different time, so I would just hope that any training provided reflects the changes in the times we live in now,” Moore said. “We have a lot more issues that we’re dealing with, policy changes that give more freedom to people on our streets who want to do something wrong, gun laws and things like that.”

“I want to make sure these individuals are safe because most of the people I knew who were volunteering in this program were older — 60 and older — and because they had the time,” Moore said.

Williams said he has an “overwhelming number of questions.”

“With the amount of vehicles required of this council just by the needs of our officers and the amount of wrecks that we have and the amount of liability that we take on as a city, don’t you think this is a nightmare liability for the city. from Birmingham?” he said.

“These are civilians for whom we have no administrative or disciplinary control over how they operate, other than to exclude them from the program.”

Prosecutor Nicole King told Williams the program had been investigated.

“So I can say with the type of training in place, although you can never predict things, we think this will be a success,” King said.

Williams said he is concerned about liability issues.

“The idea of ​​citizens on patrol — I mean, a comedy movie has been made out of it — because I think we all know what the outcome is with a program like this,” he said.

“I can’t vote for this and put citizens’ lives at risk, take away even more resources that would go to the current APOST officers of the Birmingham Police Department, and I think we’re very short-sighted about what it would take to one of these. civilians to end up in a situation where they are in over their head.”

“It’s a tragedy waiting to happen,” Williams said. “I can’t stand that.”

Council members Valerie Abbot, Carol Clarke, LaTonya Tate, Clinton Woods and O’Quinn voted to pass the motion. Williams, Moore, Smitherman and President Pro Tem Wardine Alexander abstained.

The council also unanimously passed an ordinance to establish an auxiliary police task force, or reserve force.

Reserve officers would be APOST certified with arrest duties. Although also a volunteer position, reserve officers could be paid up to 20 percent of a sworn officer’s salary.