Brookside, Alabama settles ‘policing-for-profit’ lawsuit

A federal court has granted preliminary approval to a settlement resolving a lawsuit against Brookside, Alabama, regarding its ‘policing-for-profit’ practices. The town is set to pay $1.5 million in direct compensation to victims of an aggressive policing system implemented in 2018.

Between 2018 and the settlement, Brookside officials utilized speed traps, traffic tickets, and vehicle towing to generate revenue, which increased police-generated income by over 600% and extracted nearly $2 million from drivers.

As part of the settlement, Brookside has agreed to several systemic reforms, including a 10-year ban on officer actions on Interstate 22. The town must also forfeit all revenue from policing and code enforcement for the next five years, and will be restricted to keeping only 1% of such revenue for the following 10 years. Additionally, the town will implement transparency measures to allow the Institute for Justice to monitor compliance for a decade.