Policing for Profit | Behind the Investigation

Behind the Investigation with Atlanta News First

Anytime Chekietha Grant sees a police cruiser, she immediately starts recording on her phone. It’s an impulse reaction after a 2022 encounter with law enforcement in Brookside, Alabama, that started with an alleged broken tag light, and ended with her in handcuffs and behind bars.

“Every time I go anywhere, I’m nervous,” Grant said. “If police get behind me, I instantly have to record.”

Police arrested her daughter, Alexis Thomas, too. The traffic stop cost them thousands of dollars in fees from municipal court, the tow truck company, and attorney fees.

Their experience mirrors hundreds of similar complaints from ticketed drivers in the small Alabama town, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the Institute of Justice, alleging the city deployed its police department not to protect the public, but to generate revenue.

According to the lawsuit, the city boosted its budget 640 percent through fines and forfeitures in two years. During that time, it purchased an armored vehicle residents called “The Tank,” and named the department’s K-9, “Cash.”