Patrick Smith takes command as Birmingham’s new police chief
Patrick Smith took office June 25 as Birmingham’s new police chief, and among his belongings is an envelope he’s carried since the start of his law enforcement career 28 years ago. When Smith joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1990, his mother gave him a sheet of paper and asked him to write his goal for the future. He wrote four words: “Chief of Police, Birmingham.” “I kept that piece of paper in an envelope for the duration of my career,” Smith said in a recent interview with the Birmingham Times. “When I received the call from (Mayor Randall Woodfin about) becoming chief of police in Birmingham, it was a very emotional moment because I pointed to the heavens and said, ‘I told you, Mom, we could do it.’” Smith’s mother, Dorothy, died seven years ago, but she would be proud of her son — a veteran LAPD administrator who is now police chief for Alabama’s largest city. After a five-month search, Woodfin announced June 4 that Smith would serve as chief of the Birmingham Police Department. Smith, 54, a Tuscaloosa native, is taking over during a time when homicides and some violent crimes have increased in Birmingham, and residents and city leaders want something done. “I love the city, but I would like for there to be better police protection when stuff goes on,” said Prude Fuller, president of the Airport Highlands Neighborhood Association. “I think that’s very important because there’s too much crime … in the city in general.” Smith has heard from residents and read up on Birmingham, and he is aware that crime stats will be watched closely during his tenure. He doesn’t want anyone to expect an overnight fix, though. Top priority “The biggest thing I see for the BPD is hiring, recruitment and retention,” Smith said. We can’t do anything until we … get the right people on the job. Currently, we have more than 100 vacancies. That affects the number of people who are out on patrol, who are addressing calls. We need to address the basic services (such as 911 calls) before we do everything else. That’s going to be one of my primary focuses because (we need to have the right) people to address crime.” Smith knows he must also get out among the residents in Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods and 23 communities. Birmingham City Council President Valerie Abbott said, “I would advise (Smith) to meet with the (23) communities and hear what they have to say. “(All) 99 neighborhoods would be too many to meet with, but the people who actually live in the neighborhoods know what the problems are.” That’s part of his mission, Smith said: “I plan to learn the 23 communities and 99 neighborhoods within the city because each one has to have a different formula for what will work. Law enforcement is not one-size-fits-all. I’m not coming into Birmingham thinking I know everything about the city and everything that’s going on.” Alabama native “Growing up the youngest of 13 was a very interesting experience,” he said. “You learn different roles. You learn to be a negotiator. You learn to be a collaborator. You learn to work with your family as a team. You learn how to resolve problems. I think all of those are important and effective tools in law enforcement.”Smith was born and raised in Tuscaloosa and attended Central High School. He is the youngest of 13 siblings, which in some ways helped prepare him for his career. He remembers watching cop shows when he was younger, including “The Mod Squad” with the supercool Clarence Williams III as Lincoln “Linc” Hayes, described by Smith as a “very dynamic character.” “Just the fact that they were working kind of a quasi-undercover assignment, I found that interesting,” Smith said of the TV crime drama that aired from 1968 to 1973. Family ties Smith’s upbringing — with his mother, Dorothy, a Head Start teacher, and his father, Jasper, a longtime worker at Tuscaloosa’s Central Foundry — has always been his strongest influence. His parents “were both down-to-earth, genuine people,” Smith said. “They kept a close-knit family. In fact, my family still has dinner together every Sunday after church. When my mother passed away, we were able to track her membership at our family church back 53 years. Just coming back here and being able to return to (First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa), which my mother … and entire family attended for many, many years, is a blessing within itself.” Smith’s law enforcement career came into focus when he joined the military. He served seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps, completing his basic training at Parris Island, S.C. And he made stops at Camp Pendleton in California, as well as in Okinawa, Japan; Fuji, Japan; and the Philippines. “One of the things I did while traveling extensively was learn different cultures, different people, and different environments … just learn about people,” Smith said. “I think it has been extremely important because (it taught me) to respect different cultures and different people, how they were brought up, and the things that are important to them.” How does that apply to the duties of a police officer? “I can take someone to jail, but I don’t have to disrespect them as a person,” he said. “I can bring them in for what they’ve done, and they can be held accountable through the criminal justice system. But as an individual officer, as an individual person, it’s always important to treat (people) with dignity and respect regardless of what they’ve done.” LAPD In Los Angeles, Smith worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a patrol officer, then becoming a police field-training officer and instructor, sergeant, lieutenant and captain. Most recently, since 2015, he served as a police commander. Transitioning from a large city like Los Angeles to a smaller one like Birmingham can be a culture shock. LA has a population of nearly four million, and the LAPD has approximately 9,000 sworn officers and 3,000 civilian employees. Birmingham has
Jeb Bush using Paris attacks to pitch broad military buildup
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is calling for a broad military buildup and says the U.S. armed forces have been left ill-prepared to defeat the Islamic State, blamed for the Paris attacks that killed at least 129 and wounded hundreds more. The former Florida governor is projecting himself as a potential commander in chief able to handle such challenges, as his presidential bid tries to gain traction in a primary campaign likely to be shaken up after the Paris attacks. “The brutal savagery is a reminder of what is at stake in this election,” Bush says in excerpts of a speech he plans to deliver Wednesday at The Military College of South Carolina, known as The Citadel. “We are choosing the leader of the free world,” he said, according to passages provided to The Associated Press in advance. “And if these attacks remind us of anything, it’s that we are living in serious times that require serious leadership.” The speech, which had been scheduled before Friday’s deadly attacks, initially was to be more focused on Pentagon policy and equipment procurement reform. But the attacks prompted a quick shift in focus. Bush hinted at the themes while campaigning Tuesday in South Carolina, where many Republican primary voters are retired and active-duty military, and where support runs high for the U.S. armed forces. Bush has long faulted President Barack Obama‘s administration, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — the leading Democratic presidential candidate — for allowing wholesale federal spending cuts prompted by the 2013 budget reconciliation after Congress and the president were unable to craft more strategic cuts. The cuts affected military and non-military spending alike, at a time when conflicts in Syria and Iraq “spiraled out of control as President Obama and Hillary Clinton failed to act,” Bush said. Bush’s campaign Tuesday released a broad outline of his proposal, to restore the cuts and set goals to build up the military in several areas. Many echoed points he has made over the past six months as a candidate, such as providing military training and support for allies in Eastern Europe and the Baltic region, where Russia has been applying pressure. It also included some new points, including Bush’s desire to update the United States’ nuclear weapons capacity. Bush also calls for increasing production of next-generation stealth bombers. And he also calls for doubling the U.S. Marine Corps’ battle-ready strength to 186,000. “I believe in the principle that the greater our superiority in military power, the less likely it is that we will have to assert that power, or be provoked into using it,” Bush said in the excerpts. Bush, a year ago viewed as the likely front-runner, has failed to move to the top tier of GOP White House hopefuls in a field where political outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson and charismatic young lawmakers Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have eclipsed him. But Bush hinted Tuesday, campaigning in Columbia, that the Paris attacks could change the focus for choosing the next commander in chief. Bush also appears to be anticipating criticism that he would wage war in Iraq, as his father and brother did when they were president. “I think it’s important for the next president, whoever he or she may be, to learn from the lessons of the past and use those lessons to focus on the future,” Bush told an audience of more than 300 at Coastal Carolina University in Conway Tuesday. On Thursday in New York, Clinton will deliver an address outlining her strategy for defeating ISIS as well as her overall plan for fighting radical jihadism. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
“Off-the-grid” veteran Tyler Truitt scorned by Huntsville, supported by many
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Tyler Truitt has met a few stumbling blocks in his quest to live, along with his girlfriend Soraya Hamar, more or less “off-the-grid.” None have been so decisive or seemingly final as the recent word that has come down from the city of Huntsville’s municipal code enforcers, who have condemned his single-wide trailer — complete with a functional generator powered by solar panels, composting toilet and 550-gallon tank full of reserve rain water — as dangerous and unlivable. The 27-year-old veteran says he is not harming his neighbors or anyone else by refraining from hooking up to municipal water and electric utilities. Truitt, who works at an Alabama military garrison at Redstone Arsenal, just wants to live a lifestyle free of debt that allows him to conserve natural resources and go back to school to finish his degree without incurring student loans. “They’re taking a big option away from families that can’t afford to build a fancy house,” Truitt told AL.com. “I have looked and didn’t see anything (in Huntsville’s Code of Ordinances) which says I’m not allowed to use off-grid utilities. They claim that it’s not sufficient to use off-grid utilities because it’s not a ‘permanent’ source of power.” The city, however, sees it differently. Huntsville is choosing to enforce requirements in city ordinance that “occupants of a residential dwelling have safe, potable, running water and electricity,” said Kelly Schrimsher, on behalf of Mayor Tommy Battle. The city said Truitt would be free to live as off-the-grid as he wants out on unincorporated land in surrounding Madison County, but that where Truitt runs afoul of the law is his failure — or in his phrase, a conscious act of “civil disobedience” — to secure the proper permits and comply with city-limits building code. “We encourage green environmental living, and we request interested citizens go through proper channels,” Schrimsher said. “Our departments stand ready and willing to guide them through the appropriate permitting process.” Others not just in Alabama but across the country are speaking out about Truitt’s experience and the rights they believe protect his choice. A Facebook page “Stand With Taylor For Liberty” has more than 1,000 likes and a GoFundMe account set up on his behalf. The story has been picked up by several national constitutional groups concerned about the apparent violation of Truitt’s property rights with one commenter on the Facebook page drawing similarities to this case and the showdown at the Bundy Ranch. Truitt’s first court appearance on the building code violations is set for July 29. As of now, Truitt said he intends to resist the city’s coercions. “Sometimes you have to take a stand for what you think is right,” Truitt said.
