Birmingham Council Approves Cameras to Help Fight Crime
Birmingham police will soon have some extra help to spot crime. The Birmingham City Council Tuesday approved an agreement with Alabama Power to install 100 cameras around the city. The service and equipment will cost $672,000. The city will pay Alabama Power Company that amount over five years.
The vote comes as the city continues to wrestle with an increase in violent crime.
Hunter Williams, chairman of the council’s public safety committee, says the cameras will work alongside the city’s shot spotter devices. Those detect the sound of bullets and alert police, but Williams says police need more.
“Right now, we have an audible shot spotter in place, but we are blind to see what’s going on as those shots ring out,” he says. “So, what this will do, it will couple with that so that we will have eyes and ears.”
Williams says the cameras will be connected to police dispatch and Jefferson County’s shared crime monitoring system.
The council’s vote on the cameras was unanimous.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
Undue Medical Debt has paid off more than $299 million in medical debts in Alabama. Now, the nonprofit warns that the issue could soon get worse.
Roy Wood Jr. on his father, his son and his new book
Actor, comedian and writer Roy Wood Jr. is out with a new book -- "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir." He writes about his experience growing up in Birmingham, losing his dad as a teenager and all the lessons he learned from various father figures throughout his career.
Auburn fires coach Hugh Freeze following 12th loss in his last 15 SEC games
The 56-year-old Freeze failed to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three years on the Plains, scoring 24 or fewer points in 17 of his 22 league games. He also ended up on the wrong end of too many close matchups, including twice this season thanks partly to questionable calls.
In a ‘disheartening’ era, the nation’s former top mining regulator speaks out
Joe Pizarchik, who led the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from 2009 to 2017, says Alabama’s move in the wake of a fatal 2024 home explosion increases risks to residents living atop “gassy” coal mines.
