Birmingham, Ala., area police departments might have their hands a little fuller starting next year. Earlier this week, Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale announced significant layoffs and budget restrictions for the 2012 year. One hundred and one deputies and 38 support personnel will be laid off from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, and four substations will be closed to compensate for a $6.5 million reduction to next year's fiscal budget.
The units that will be most decimated are the vice and narcotics units, with the number expected to drop from 251 to 150. It's unclear how this will affect Jefferson County and the surrounding areas such as Shelby County and Tuscaloosa County, which are also losing Sherrif's Department personnel. Earlier this month, Shelby County Pelham sheriff's detective Lieutenant Scott Tucker arrested a woman who had allegedly deserted her children for several days and admitted to purchasing the prescription anti-anxiety and pain medications Xanax and Latrob illegally on the streets. That same week, Tucker retired from the Pelham Police Department.
The budget cuts and layoffs in Jefferson County could completely "do away" with the vice and narcotics unit in the Bessemer Cutoff, said Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale. He called the effect "devastating," and said that the entire county would then have to rely on the few vice and narcotics deputies left in the Birmingham division after all the cuts have been implemented to cover the whole county area.
The Jefferson County cuts come after the 2012 budget for the county was shorted $100 million from the $312 million plan originally approved for 2011 because the county lost the job tax and other revenue. Concern for public safety is a major result of the widespread cuts in the Birmingham, Center Point, Forestdale, Oak Grove and Mt. Olive areas, which are expected to be impacted greatly by the reduction in law enforcement, especially for crimes originally handled by the vice and narcotics divisions.
In addition to the narcotics problems Tucker's Pelham division has seen and the possibility of increased narcotics use if the Birmingham deputies don't have the numbers to control such a large county area, the general west Alabama area has faced other narcotics busts in recent weeks.
Last week, the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force arrested six people after finding active methamphetamine labs in a home. A day before that, the agents had arrested four people for meth trafficking after deputies said they saw materials used for making the drug in the car during a traffic stop. After conducting an investigation, the agents found two meth labs that needed to be processed for usable meth, a third that was inactive and a fourth that was actively boiling. Department guidelines mandate that agents dispose of the chemicals when found. Of the 10 people under arrest, none were older than 35, and one woman was just 19 years old.
With an already widespread narcotics problem, the obstacle of reducing or completely eliminating vice and narcotics divisions in Jefferson County is hardly an ideal situation.
The units that will be most decimated are the vice and narcotics units, with the number expected to drop from 251 to 150. It's unclear how this will affect Jefferson County and the surrounding areas such as Shelby County and Tuscaloosa County, which are also losing Sherrif's Department personnel. Earlier this month, Shelby County Pelham sheriff's detective Lieutenant Scott Tucker arrested a woman who had allegedly deserted her children for several days and admitted to purchasing the prescription anti-anxiety and pain medications Xanax and Latrob illegally on the streets. That same week, Tucker retired from the Pelham Police Department.
The budget cuts and layoffs in Jefferson County could completely "do away" with the vice and narcotics unit in the Bessemer Cutoff, said Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale. He called the effect "devastating," and said that the entire county would then have to rely on the few vice and narcotics deputies left in the Birmingham division after all the cuts have been implemented to cover the whole county area.
The Jefferson County cuts come after the 2012 budget for the county was shorted $100 million from the $312 million plan originally approved for 2011 because the county lost the job tax and other revenue. Concern for public safety is a major result of the widespread cuts in the Birmingham, Center Point, Forestdale, Oak Grove and Mt. Olive areas, which are expected to be impacted greatly by the reduction in law enforcement, especially for crimes originally handled by the vice and narcotics divisions.
In addition to the narcotics problems Tucker's Pelham division has seen and the possibility of increased narcotics use if the Birmingham deputies don't have the numbers to control such a large county area, the general west Alabama area has faced other narcotics busts in recent weeks.
Last week, the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force arrested six people after finding active methamphetamine labs in a home. A day before that, the agents had arrested four people for meth trafficking after deputies said they saw materials used for making the drug in the car during a traffic stop. After conducting an investigation, the agents found two meth labs that needed to be processed for usable meth, a third that was inactive and a fourth that was actively boiling. Department guidelines mandate that agents dispose of the chemicals when found. Of the 10 people under arrest, none were older than 35, and one woman was just 19 years old.
With an already widespread narcotics problem, the obstacle of reducing or completely eliminating vice and narcotics divisions in Jefferson County is hardly an ideal situation.
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