Alabama auditors cite chaotic evidence room, missing guns in Brookside

Alabama auditors immediately issued a scathing report in town of Brookside, detailing haphazard remedy of proof, lacking weapons, unexplained additional weapons, an unmarked trash bag full of prescription medicines, undocumented stacks of money and proof crammed into storage wherever it will match.

“Nineteen firearms listed on the Police Division’s proof log weren’t discovered throughout the

stock,” the report stated. “Moreover, the stock revealed sixty-three firearms and quite a few ammunition magazines in police custody that weren’t listed on the Police Division’s proof logs supplied.”

The audit by the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts started Feb. 22 on the request of Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, after revelations concerning the tiny city’s policing have been revealed by AL.com.

The audit says weapons have been “carelessly tossed into bins and randomly saved in cupboards contained in the proof closet.” The audit included footage to depict proof in disarray.

State examiners additionally discovered poor monetary safeguards by the city, the police division and its municipal court docket, as examiners got here to an inventory of harsh conclusions.

They embody:

• The city didn’t have satisfactory insurance policies and procedures to sufficiently tackle the each day operations.
• There have been no stock data to make sure proof collected by the police division was accounted for.
• Money bonds weren’t being recorded and deposited correctly.
• The municipal court docket didn’t have written insurance policies in place to make sure compliance with the Alabama Guidelines of Judicial Administration.
• Brookside didn’t be certain that all quantities collected have been for offenses included in Brookside’s personal ordinances, and there was no assurance that ordinances have been constantly utilized.
• Brookside didn’t guarantee compliance with the state bid legislation when it awarded a no-bid contract to its towing firm, Jett Towing.
• “Additional, the money collected as proof was not at all times labeled correctly. Some money needed to be recounted for accuracy as a result of the quantity labeled on the envelope didn’t agree with the quantity proven on the proof log,” it stated.
  

In a press release immediately, Brookside Mayor Mike Bryan stated the city welcomed the audit report.

“This report is an efficient factor,” he stated. “It lets us know what we have to enhance. Our goal will proceed to be to advertise confidence in native authorities by means of clear practices and respectful interactions with city workers and elected officers.”

The report, nevertheless, discovered many hassle spots.

Counterfeit cash was discovered within the proof closet, although legislation enforcement businesses are supposed to show it in to the U.S. Secret Service.

Proof labeled for a similar case was discovered scattered into totally different places, and a trash bag full of prescription capsule bottles was discovered within the proof closet.

“Whereas the capsule bottles didn’t seem like associated to a case, they have been within the custody of the Police Division,” the audit report says. “Nevertheless, there have been no directions or labeling on the bag concerning a cause it was being held or disposition of the capsule bottles.”

Drivers have claimed that police took their prescribed medicine and by no means returned it.

The report discovered quite a few issues with proof and weapons.

“Objects in custody of the Police Division have been discovered to be saved in a disorganized or chaotic method,” it stated. “A firearm listed as proof was discovered inside a secure housing the Police Division’s firearms,.. Objects seemed to be positioned wherever area might be discovered contained in the proof closet.”

The audit report notes that in October of 2021 the Brookside city council accepted plenty of weapons to be despatched to an entity referred to as Gulf States for evaluation.

“It was decided that no firearms have been offered to Gulf States in October 2021, however firearms have been offered to Gulf States on April 17, 2020. It was famous, 5 of the firearms offered to Gulf States in April of 2020 have been nonetheless proven on the Police Division’s proof log as on-hand.”

Brookside Interim Police Chief Henry Irby, who was employed in February, stated within the assertion that he has been working to handle issues with proof and protocols.

“We’re nicely conscious of the issues we have to tackle and have been actively doing so,” he stated.

That assertion — see the complete launch under — says Irby has since collected all firearms the audit couldn’t account for.

Brookside’s court docket has been suspended since AL.com described how the city constructed a fearsome police drive that got here to provide half the city’s income by means of fines and charges. Courtroom will resume April 28. Former Police Chief Mike Jones resigned and far of the police drive resigned or was let go.

“The City of Brookside is grateful for the options to enhance Brookside’s monetary practices,” the city assertion immediately stated. “Each city has room to develop and implement higher protocols to make sure the correct dealing with of public funds.”