Law-enforcement leaders ask committee to continue funding rapid-response task force and camera contract; cite local crime drops and data-reporting gaps

Secretary Hal Taylor told the Joint Interim Committees that the Alabama rapid-response suppression unit — the MAX task force — has aided Montgomery-area operations and that continued funding would let the unit respond to hotspots statewide. Taylor also described a multiyear contract for body-worn and in-car cameras, and committee members raised concerns about incomplete crime-data reporting by local agencies.

Taylor described two funding items the department included in its FY 2026 request: the second-year payment on a five-year body-worn camera and in-car camera contract (described as $3.8 million) and a $3,000,000 request to staff and equip the Alabama Metro Area Crime Suppression (MAX) unit. He said the MAX expansion would fund 10 sworn officers plus vehicles and equipment to allow the unit to deploy quickly to other cities and counties when local agencies ask for assistance.

Taylor told lawmakers the unit’s work in Montgomery since June 2024 included roughly 2,000 traffic stops, about 573 arrests, 230 additional arrests (both numbers reported separately by the speaker), 164 firearms seized, 100 machine-gun conversion devices seized in one operation and 45 drug seizures; he said medical providers in Montgomery reported fewer gunshot patients after the unit began operations. “That’s the $3,000,000 is to have more people available so if someone were to call,” Taylor said, “just like, Representative Warren when they had the shooting over in Tuskegee, we were over there and they were trying to hire some more people over there. If I had had enough people to send over there… then we could help them with security on the campus over there during that time.”

Committee members asked about the task force’s legal and operational framework. Taylor said the suppression unit operates under memoranda of understanding with local partners and that state agents have deployed to assist Birmingham and other jurisdictions on request. He said the department works with the Montgomery Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the attorney general’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on multiagency operations.

Lawmakers also questioned data quality for statewide crime reporting. One legislator asked whether the department can be confident that all local police and sheriff’s offices submit accurate crime statistics. Taylor responded that the state is a repository for data it receives and that the department has limited recourse to force local agencies to correct or supplement reports; he suggested federal review of reporting compliance as a possible lever, noting that federal grant funding sometimes flows on the basis of reported crime statistics. The committee discussed whether federal review or conditional funding might improve reporting compliance.

Lawmakers requested the task-force operation data the department cited. Taylor agreed to provide documents and said the department can supply the arrest, seizure and activity metrics presented.

Ending: The committee did not vote on funding during the hearing. Members asked for follow-up documents and analysis to support any future appropriation requests.