Taking next steps: Protests put spotlight on police practices, racial diversity in city
Most people have seen the videos and photos of Hoover police standing face to face with protesters as the protesters yell obscenities and disparaging comments at them, including calling them racist and brutal cops.
It was a scene played out in cities across the country as the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked outrage among people who say there is a pattern of police officers abusing their authority and unfairly targeting — sometimes wrongly killing — people of color.
Protests rang out across Alabama as well, from Mobile to Huntsville and from Auburn to Tuscaloosa. Rioting, including vandalism of buildings and statues and attacks on journalists, hit downtown Birmingham. In Huntsville, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters to keep them at bay.
As of press time, Hoover police had not used such tactics but had arrested scores of protesters, mostly on charges of disorderly conduct for disobeying police orders to stay out of roadways. Some were arrested for throwing items at police, and some faced charges of resisting arrest.
Protests happened in other cities around Birmingham, but the ones in Hoover stood out because Hoover police made more arrests. Hoover also drew more attention from protesters because of the November 2018 shooting of E.J. Bradford at the Riverchase Galleria by a Hoover police officer, who was later cleared by the attorney general’s office of any wrongdoing. A racist video by Hoover teenagers that made national news in 2019 and racially charged debates over Hoover school rezoning and buses in years past have added to the unrest.
A group called Alabama Rally Against Injustice that organized protests across the state after Floyd’s death criticized Hoover for its response following a June 6 protest at City Hall. The rally drew an estimated 800 protesters. Most left after two hours of speeches, but about 100 stayed to protest more, with organizers telling them to be prepared to be arrested.
Indeed, police did arrest 23 people and charge them with disorderly conduct in the aftermath of the rally that day as protesters challenged them and stood in the roadway.
Alabama Rally Against Injustice issued a statement, saying “We are not only severely troubled by the fact that Hoover was the only city that has arrested peaceful protestors [sic], but also by the fact that the city refuses to have the difficult conversations necessary to bring about lasting and meaningful change.
“While the arrests happened after Alabama Rally Against Injustice’s event had concluded, we hope the city of Hoover will review their protocols and procedures as it pertains to peaceful protests and that in the future they will be willing to have conversations with the public, instead of locking up citizens that are attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights,” the organization said.
Hoover police spokesman Lt. Keith Czeskleba emphasized the 23 arrests that day were for disorderly conduct and occurred after the rally concluded.
NEXT STEPS?
More protests have ensued, but a major question looming is what happens next?
Satura Dudley, a 20-year-old Hoover resident who has been a leader of the protests in Hoover, said protesters had a “list of demands” for Hoover city leaders, including:
► Reallocating resources from the Hoover Police Department to social services, such as mental health services
► Providing more training to police officers, including de-escalation and bias training
► Addressing mistreatment of protesters
► Showing respect for the COVID-19 disease by providing masks to people arrested and keeping them separated from one another (though most protesters have not been separating themselves from one another during protests)
Celida Soto, a Birmingham woman with Alabama Rally Against Injustice, said people in the minority community have been having conversations with Hoover officials for more than four years and she “doesn’t see any type of forward motion.”
The city of Hoover spends an “absurd” percentage of its budget on public safety and uses a “quasi-military approach” to policing, Soto said.
The Police Department’s tactical equipment purchases are unnecessary and reactive, she said. The city should take some of that money and reallocate it for social services such as mental health counseling and violence intervention, she said.
Also, police need to be trained better on how to de-escalate confrontational situations, Soto said.
Efforts to reach Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis for a response to the comments by Dudley and Soto were unsuccessful, but Derzis previously has said the Hoover Police Department is open to peaceful protests.
“We have stated in the past that we will work with everyone,” Derzis said. “It’s disheartening when people come out and immediately start cussing and throwing things at police. We’re out there to provide a safe environment for protection of the protesters. All I ask is to come over and be peaceful.”
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he believes Hoover police officers have performed in an incredible manner and with much restraint, despite being pelted with eggs and bottles of water and urine and having foul language and personal insults directed toward them.
“They never overreacted,” Brocato said. “Overall, I think they did a wonderful job. They were very proactive in working with the organizers of the demonstrations and laying out guidelines.
“For the most part, 95% of the people who came to our protests were peaceful and just wanted to get their message out,” Brocato continued. “But there was a faction embedded in just about every group that came with the intent of causing damage or getting arrested. Some wanted to get arrested and make it more spectacular by resisting and things like that, and some just walked up to our police officers and asked to be arrested after they broke the law [by stepping into the roadway after being instructed not to do so by police].”
Police did try to keep the protesters on public property because private property owners didn’t want them on their property, Brocato said. And the protesters did not have a permit to walk along the public right of way, he said.
“We don’t even have a Christmas parade or anything like that down Highway 31 because it’s too difficult to manage,” Brocato said. “We certainly can’t afford to have large masses of people walking without any control down Highway 31. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Some residents have applauded police for maintaining order and keeping things from reaching the point they did in Birmingham on May 31.
Brocato said Hoover officials are always going to protect the rights of people to demonstrate, and he believes the city has an excellent track record of showing that.
DEFUNDING POLICE
Brocato said he does not subscribe to the idea that the Police Department needs to be “defunded” in any way.
“People move to the city of Hoover because we are a very safe city, and we want to continue to be a safe city,” he said.
The city has spent several million dollars in community service agreements with various agencies that provide social services dealing with things such as homelessness, mental illness, hunger, abuse and disabilities, Brocato said. As other social service opportunities arise, the mayor and Hoover City Council will evaluate them, he said.
He agrees that mental health is a huge problem facing the country, but “defunding the Police Department is not the way to address that,” he said. “Those are two separate issues.”
Hoover Councilman Curt Posey said it’s important to listen to everyone’s concerns, but it’s time to move beyond yelling and protesting and start having discussion.
He examined the Police Department budgets of the six largest cities in Alabama and found that funding for Hoover police is not disproportionate, he said.
Hoover budgeted $14.4 million for police in its general fund in fiscal 2020, putting Hoover in sixth place among those cities, and Hoover is ranked sixth in population, he said. Birmingham led the list with $92.8 million for police, followed by $50.5 million in Huntsville, $49.3 million in Montgomery, $34.3 million in Tuscaloosa, and $28.7 million in Mobile, according to numbers provided by Posey.
Breaking it down by population, Hoover budgeted $165 per resident, ranking it fifth among the top six cities. According to Posey’s numbers, funds budgeted for police per resident were $444 in Birmingham, $332 in Tuscaloosa, $250 in Montgomery, $249 in Huntsville and $154 in Mobile.
“There’s no fluff in our budget,” Posey said. “We are doing more with less.”
As Hoover continues to add homes and grow in population, public safety needs also will grow, he added. Personnel are particularly critical to maintain good response times, he said.
MORE ACTION REQUESTED
A group of about 150 people sent a letter to the editor to the Hoover Sun (published online), asking city leaders to move beyond discussion and institute “transformative and sustainable changes to city government and administration designed to promote equity and inclusion for all citizens in our diverse city.”
Specifically, the group wants city leaders to:
► Create a website that summarizes data regarding traffic stops, tickets, arrests, school discipline, educational outcomes, city employment and city contract awards by race, ethnicity and gender.
► Hire a chief diversity officer for the city to oversee data requests, conduct diversity climate assessment, review city policies and compare with best practices related to equity and inclusion, and work with citizen groups and advisory boards.
► Create an equity and inclusion advisory board of racially and ethnically diverse Hoover residents to recommend data-driven policy changes and training initiatives.
► Require diversity, equity and implicit bias training for all city employees and officials.
► Incorporate criteria related to diversity, equity and inclusion into all departmental and employee evaluations.
POLICY, PROCEDURE REVIEWS
Brocato said his administration has been working since he was elected to make the city’s workforce more diverse and address diversity and inclusion citywide.
He initiated the Leadership Hoover organization that includes people from all walks of life and has a specific session dedicated to diversity, and he began appointing more minorities to city boards.
He also appointed a diversity coordinator within the city’s personnel department that has been to training to help Hoover be more effective in that area. The city has started actively recruiting minorities through job fairs to ensure a diverse pool of applicants and has diverse panels of employees conduct interviews, he said.
All of this was done prior to the Galleria shooting because it was the right thing to do, Brocato said.
Also, the Hoover Police Department is seeking accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, which is a joint effort of four major groups of law enforcement executives, including the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
That process includes a deep dive into every policy and procedure of the Police Department, Brocato said.
“It’s going to expose us to outside assessors from departments all over the country that will either reinforce our policies or show us where we have any shortcomings,” he said.
Brocato said the COVID-19 outbreak has slowed that process down, but he hopes to have those outside assessments done by the end of this year. A police officer has been assigned to work on that accreditation full-time, he said. “It’s a huge priority of the chief, the mayor and the City Council.”
Brocato said all department heads go through diversity and inclusion training, and he himself has attended diversity and inclusion forums. Also, the Police Department should have diversity training from an outside federal agency this summer, he said.
“We’re not just talking,” he said. “We’re doing.”