What happens when a police force becomes a shake-down operation? More drivers complain of Brookside police as sheriff urges them to fight charges - al.com
When Brookside police stopped Jeanetta Jones as she pulled off Interstate 22 on a December night, they searched her car and found nothing. They ended up letting her go, she said, but not before taking her medication and cash.
“That was my bill money — my mortgage money, my house insurance money,” Jones said. “That seemed to me like it wasn’t nothing but a shakedown.”
Brookside, Alabama derives not-quite half of its town's budget from fines and forfeitures. Is your insurance expired? Be prepared to have your car seized and sold.
People who spoke at the meeting described being pulled over outside the town limits, charged exorbitant fees and left on the side of the road after police had their cars towed — often for minor traffic violations such as lapsed insurance coverage. Some said police seized their property and never returned it.
One man, Jordan Cole, said Brookside was investigating his brother for car theft but ended up seizing his family’s home and arresting his elderly and disabled mother on a charge of hindering prosecution.
People lose their cars. Then they lose their jobs because they have no transportation. Then their homes.
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