Chickasaw police chief Keith Miller fired after corruption allegations
Former Chickasaw Police Chief Keith Miller was fired in a 4-1 City Council vote in July 2023 following ethics complaints alleging misuse of public property; he later filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the mayor.
CHICKASAW, Ala. — The corrupt reign of former Chickasaw Police Chief Keith Miller has finally come to an end, but the stench of his alleged misconduct lingers over this small Mobile County city like a toxic cloud. Miller, who was unceremoniously fired in a 4-to-1 city council vote on July 11, 2023, didn’t just fail in his duties—he allegedly weaponized his badge for personal profit, turning the public trust into a personal slush fund.
The termination came after a grueling three-hour executive session, where city leaders finally confronted the mountain of evidence against him. While Mayor Barry Broadhead has remained tight-lipped, hiding behind confidentiality rules, the record is clear: Miller’s exit was not a routine personnel matter. It was the necessary removal of a public official who, according to multiple complaints, treated the city’s resources as his own personal piggy bank.
At the heart of the scandal are formal complaints filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission, detailing a brazen scheme of self-dealing. Miller is accused of using county-owned vehicles and property for personal gain while simultaneously pocketing outside pay for private security detail work. In other words, he allegedly used taxpayer-funded equipment to run a side business for his own enrichment—a direct violation of the public’s trust and a textbook case of official corruption. One complaint that was filed against him notes that he was using a county-owned vehicle to provide security services for a church event on Cody Road. In another complaint, the complaint states that he reported his income to the Alabama Ethics Commission as being less than $10,000. Salary records from Mobile County state that he was making over $60,000 at the time.
But the allegations don’t stop at financial fraud. Multiple individuals have come forward alleging that Miller stole property during search warrants and distributed it to his own family members. If true, this is not just misconduct—it is criminal behavior. A police chief sworn to uphold the law allegedly turned search warrants into shopping sprees for his relatives, stealing from the very citizens he was supposed to protect.
The city council’s decision to fire Miller came after he was placed on administrative leave on July 10, 2023, when Mayor Broadhead served him with a notice of termination. Miller, in a classic display of arrogance, claimed he was blindsided by the move, insisting he had received no prior notice of any conduct issues. But the complaints against him told a different story—one of a chief who believed he was above the law.
Only one council member, Kendall Sterrett, voted against the firing, claiming the allegations weren’t “strong enough” to warrant termination. Sterrett’s lone dissent stands as a baffling defense of a man facing credible accusations of theft and ethics violations. The other four council members, to their credit, saw through the smoke screen and did what was necessary.
The fallout has been predictable. Miller, refusing to accept accountability, filed a federal lawsuit in February 2024 against the city and the mayor, whining that his “due process” rights were violated and his employment contract was breached. The lawsuit, which seeks lost wages and punitive damages, is nothing more than a desperate attempt by a disgraced former official to cash in one last time—this time at the expense of the taxpayers he allegedly defrauded.
The people of Chickasaw deserve answers. They deserve to know why their police chief was allegedly using their vehicles for private profit. They deserve to know why property seized in criminal investigations allegedly ended up in the hands of Miller’s family. And they deserve to know why it took a formal ethics complaint and a city council vote to remove a man who, by all accounts, should have been investigated by law enforcement long ago.
Keith Miller’s firing was not a tragedy. It was a reckoning. And the only thing more shocking than the allegations against him is the fact that he was allowed to wear a badge for as long as he did.
