Fairhope council signals support to expand police take‑home vehicle radius to 30 miles to aid recruitment

The Fairhope Police Department chief asked the City Council to consider changing the department's take‑home vehicle policy from a 15‑mile radius to a 30‑mile radius to include Mobile County as a recruitment tool. “We're asking y'all to consider changing it to a 30 mile radius to include Mobile County,” the chief said, citing recruitment challenges and examples from neighboring agencies.

The chief said other Baldwin County agencies had expanded their take‑home policies and reported improved applicant pools. “We asked this for recruitment purposes…we're having issues with recruitment. It's countywide, statewide,” the chief said. He told the council that department staff had discussed the change internally for more than a year and that the department's continuous improvement and recruitment teams ranked take‑home policy changes in their top three priorities.

Council members responded positively. One council member said he was willing to ‘give this a shot’ and suggested coupling the change with a broader recruitment review. “If there is a consulting service…that could dive into our police department and find out if there's anything else that would help with recruiting or retention, we look at that as well,” the council member said.

Council members asked the chief to return with a proposed ordinance amendment and for staff to explore complementary steps — for example, pay structure reviews and scheduling changes such as permanent 12‑hour shifts. The council directed Lisa (clerk) to note the requested amendment to the ordinance for placement on a future agenda.

Ending: The council expressed support to pursue the 30‑mile radius change and directed staff to prepare the necessary ordinance amendment and to consider additional recruitment and retention measures; no formal vote adopting the ordinance occurred at the meeting.