Brookside's town council could soon vote to dissolve the police department that has patrolled the small Jefferson County town for more than a century, after the town's insurance carrier said it will not renew coverage if Brookside keeps operating its own force. The council was expected to take up the matter at its Oct. 5 meeting at 5:30 p.m., though officials stressed no final agreement has been reached on what would replace the department.
According to abc3340.com, Brookside's current insurer has advised that coverage will not be renewed if the town continues operating a municipal police department, forcing the council to consider a resolution to abolish it. As reported by WVTM Channel 13, Brookside officials are facing challenges securing liability insurance, and the department has been in place for over a century. Mayor Mike Bryan said the town will do whatever is necessary to maintain insurance coverage, and told the station that insurers have been unwilling to underwrite Brookside or its police department.
Sheriff's Office Floated as Replacement
Brookside is evaluating whether the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office could provide law-enforcement services instead of its own department, though the town has not finalized any agreement, the station's report notes. Per the same abc3340.com reporting, residents should continue calling 911 for emergencies regardless of how the question is resolved. The town council does not want to dissolve the department, according to WVTM Channel 13, but may need to because of the insurance difficulties.
Bryan said Brookside currently lacks the manpower to provide four assigned officers, while the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office would dedicate four deputies to serving the town, assigning one officer on the day schedule, two on the second shift and one on the third shift — more patrol officers than the town's current department fields. He said contracting with the sheriff's office would cost approximately the same as operating Brookside's own department, and that dissolving the department would not compromise public safety. Brookside would continue providing city services and liability insurance coverage regardless of the outcome, per the station.
Pending Cases Would Not Simply Disappear
If the council does abolish the department, Brookside said pending investigations, prosecutions, warrants, court orders and forfeiture proceedings would not automatically end, and the town would inventory police property to establish lawful custody of records, evidence, firearms, vehicles, equipment and confidential information, according to the same abc3340.com account. The Brookside Public Safety Committee was set to meet Monday to vote on the matter before it goes to the full town council, which WVTM Channel 13 reports will also address the issue in November.
Brookside residents are divided over the prospect, per WVTM Channel 13. Resident Tiwanna Jackson said she reported the police department to city leaders multiple times, alleging officers harassed people without cause; she said her own ticket was later dismissed and that she paid for but never received a certificate from the department. Resident Latoya Calhoun, by contrast, said she has not personally experienced the alleged harassment and feels safe with the current police presence, telling the station she believes the department should remain in place and could offer quicker response times than a sheriff's-office takeover in the rural town. Residents hoped to voice their opinions at Monday's meeting.
A Department Shaped by Ticketing Controversy
The push to possibly dissolve the department follows years of scrutiny over Brookside's ticketing and towing practices, which abc3340.com describes as having drawn extensive litigation and calls for reform. The town preliminarily approved a $1.5 million class-action settlement tied to those practices, though the deal is not final — a final approval hearing is scheduled for Aug. 12, 2027, per the outlet's separate reporting. A review cited by Alabama Daily News found Brookside police relied on fines and forfeitures for almost half the town's revenue in 2020, a figure the Institute for Justice similarly put at around 49 percent that year.
Brookside would not be the first Alabama town to lose its police force this way. The Cullman County Sheriff's Office took over public-safety duties in Hanceville after that city's police department and municipal court system were officially dissolved on Feb. 13, 2026, following a history of corruption, according to al.com. Jefferson County already contracts law enforcement out to several cities using a formula based on deputy salaries, vehicles and equipment, according to WBRC, and Brookside has said a sheriff's-office agreement could prove a more economical alternative to maintaining its own department.
Insurers Have Forced Reckonings Elsewhere
Brookside's predicament echoes a pattern documented nationally. NBC News has reported that insurers can shape police departments through policy audits, training requirements, site visits and ride-alongs, and that roughly 85 percent of police departments serve municipalities with fewer than 25,000 residents. In Maywood, California, the city lost coverage and disbanded its police department in 2010 after failing to meet its insurer's requirements for improved training and incident reporting, with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department taking over patrols after the city had racked up $17.3 million in five years of police-related claims. In Niota, Tennessee, the town's insurer told the mayor in summer 2013 to remove two officers accused of beating a motorist or lose coverage entirely.
