By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on August 1, 2024
An Editorial Opinion
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city of Birmingham, Alabama has a total area of 151.9 square miles. Because of “long lasso” annexations during the Richard Arrington years as mayor, the city is situated in Jefferson and Shelby Counties. The city has 99 historic neighborhoods and communities.
At the time of the annexations, city officials recognized that Birmingham would require a police force of 912 sworn officers and 325 professional staff members to provide adequate police protection within 151.9 square miles. The police department’s website acknowledges the required number of officers and support staff needed for adequate police protection.
Today, the city has 430 sworn officers providing police services within 151.9 square miles of territory. This number of police officers is grossly inadequate. The police force is understaffed by 482 officers.
Throughout the Mayor Randall Woodfin administration, money for these 482 unfilled police positions has been redirected to pet projects for the “over-the-mountain" crowd and questionable consulting contracts for Woodfin’s political friends.
The city’s 430 sworn officers work in three shifts of about 143 officers per shift. The department staffs an administrative services division, a patrol division, and an investigative division. Less than half of the police officers employed work in the patrol division.
It is physically impossible to adequately patrol Birmingham’s 151.9 square miles of territory with a police department that is 53% understaffed. This understaffing is the greatest contributing factor to the explosion of violent street crime in the city.
Street gangs and drug dealers know that the police department is severely understaffed and that police patrols are woefully anemic. The department’s focus has shifted from preventing violent crimes, via robust police patrols, to simply solving crimes, via the work of its investigation division.
When Randall Woodfin assumed the mayor's job in 2017, the city of Birmingham was not listed on the Forbes list of the 15 Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S. Today, the city is No. 3 on the Forbes list of the Most Dangerous Cities (and several others).
Mayor Woodfin and the city's council members have engaged in a host of PR gimmicks to deflect public attention away from the fact that salary money budgeted each year for unfilled police positions is routinely redirected to support Woodfin's pet projects for the "over-the-mountain" crowd and consulting contracts for his political friends.
Birmingham residents are dying on the city's streets of every day because of these misguided political decisions. PR gimmickry at City Hall will not stop the rising death count in the Birmingham's streets. A fully staffed, 900-officer police department will.
Mayor Woodfin does not have to worry about adequate police protection for himself. He has up to 10 police officers assigned to his executive protection detail. In contrast, city residents can barely get one officer per shift to patrol each one of the city's 99 neighborhoods.
Nothing will change for Birmingham residents until they get sick and tired of dying in the streets from skyrocketing street crime. The current streak of violent crime will continue until 900 sworn officers are working on the police force, once again.
Meanwhile, all Woodfin’s pet projects are getting funded, and his political consultants are happily receiving their taxpayer-funded invoice payments.
Speaks volumes that the state of Alabama has two cities on this list. What is going on?
The Randall Woodfin administration's concept of self-policing whereby Birmingham residents are supposed to police themselves is NOT working out too well. It is a substantial departure from every resident's right to adequate police services, which is one of the seven basic services guaranteed to each taxpaying resident. Birmingham residents pay taxes for 900 sworn officers, but only have 430 of them. Taxpayers are being ripped-off in this regard.