Prichard Mayor Puts Remaining Police Officers on 30-Day Administrative Leave

PRICHARD, Ala. — Prichard Mayor Carletta Davis has placed the remaining officers of the Prichard Police Department on 30 days of administrative leave, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision.

The move comes as the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office continues its temporary takeover of law-enforcement services in the city, an arrangement that has kept deputies patrolling Prichard’s streets while the department works to rebuild its ranks. The latest development marks the most dramatic step yet in a year-long restructuring of municipal policing in Prichard.

A Deadline That Keeps Moving

Sheriff Paul Burch had planned to end that arrangement on Monday, Aug. 25, but pushed the deadline back to Sept. 4 after Davis publicly said she was working on a plan to help relieve some of the financial burden the Sheriff’s Office has been absorbing while it staffs the city.

Burch said Tuesday that he had not been aware of the mayor’s decision to place the remaining Prichard officers on administrative leave. The sheriff, who has been blunt about the costs his office is carrying during the takeover, declined to comment further on the situation or on how the move might affect his decision to terminate services in 10 days.

Burdening an already-stretched sheriff’s office with the cost of providing police service to one of Mobile County’s larger cities has been a recurring source of friction between the county and the Davis administration, and Burch has warned repeatedly that the arrangement cannot continue without a funded contract.

A Department Under Strain

The city has been under mounting pressure to establish a long-term law-enforcement plan following the arrests and departures of several Prichard police officers and command staff in recent months. The losses have left the department unable to provide round-the-clock coverage on its own, prompting the county-level intervention.

Administrative leave is a common tool used by municipal governments when an agency is undergoing a review of its operations or personnel. Officers on leave typically remain employees of the city while leadership evaluates next steps, though the practical effect for residents is the same: coverage continues to fall to the Sheriff’s Office for the foreseeable future.

The pattern has played out in other Alabama cities that have lost state or federal accreditation for their police departments, and reviewers typically look at use-of-force reporting, internal-affairs investigations, training records and officer certification status. Prichard’s review is expected to examine many of the same areas.

What Comes Next

The Sept. 4 deadline now looms as the key date in the standoff. If the Sheriff’s Office withdraws as planned and no replacement arrangement is in place, the city could face a gap in police coverage that officials on both sides have said they are trying to avoid.

Davis has indicated she is working on a financial plan aimed at making a continued county partnership sustainable, but details of that proposal have not yet been made public. City officials have not said whether the officers on leave will be returned to duty, reassigned or separated as part of any long-term restructuring.

Residents and city leaders alike are watching the calendar. With the takeover set to expire in a matter of days and the police department’s roster effectively sidelined, the next two weeks are expected to determine whether Prichard and Mobile County can reach a durable agreement — or whether the city will be left to chart a new course for public safety on its own.

Council members have publicly pressed for more information about the leave, the financial plan and the long-term staffing strategy. Several have indicated they want a public meeting to discuss the way forward before the Sept. 4 deadline, and the city clerk has begun circulating notice of a possible special session.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

What Officers on Leave Typically Experience

Officers placed on administrative leave in Alabama typically remain on the city’s payroll and continue to accrue benefits while they wait for the review to conclude. They are barred from performing law-enforcement duties and are usually required to remain available during business hours. Reviews of this scope can take weeks or months, and officers often spend the waiting period in an awkward limbo that can affect morale across the rest of the department.

Why Outside Consultants Are Common

When small and mid-size police departments come under scrutiny, cities often bring in outside consultants to provide an independent assessment. Consultants typically review personnel files, training records, use-of-force incidents and accreditation standards, and they produce a written report with recommendations for change. The Prichard review is following that pattern, with the consulting firm producing recommendations that Davis has said will shape the department’s staffing going forward.

What the City’s Next Budget Cycle Will Look Like

Prichard’s next fiscal year begins October 1, and the council is expected to take up the budget before then. The Davis administration has indicated that public-safety costs will be a major topic of the budget hearings, especially given the ongoing cost of sheriff’s office coverage. Council members have asked for line-item detail on what the city currently spends on police, courts and corrections, and how those costs might shift under the new review and any future contract with the county.

How the Public-Safety Conversation Is Likely to Evolve

Beyond the immediate question of who patrols Prichard, the broader public-safety conversation is likely to focus on staffing levels, training standards and accreditation. Council members have asked for a clear roadmap that shows how the city plans to staff a compliant department, what the cost will be, and how the cost compares to the current arrangement with the sheriff’s office. Until those questions are answered, residents are likely to see the Sept. 4 deadline as the next major flashpoint in a debate that has been simmering for most of the year.

What the Sept. 4 Deadline Means in Practice

If the sheriff’s office withdraws as planned on Sept. 4 and no replacement arrangement is in place, deputies would no longer respond to routine calls in Prichard. Emergency calls would still be routed to 911, and sheriff’s deputies would still respond — but only because the dispatch protocol sends the closest available unit, regardless of jurisdiction. That fallback is enough to keep residents from going entirely without police response, but it does not give Prichard the dedicated coverage that the temporary arrangement has provided, and it could leave some calls unanswered or significantly delayed. Council members have made clear they want to avoid that outcome.

What Residents Should Know About the Leave

Officers on administrative leave in Alabama are typically still considered employees of the city, and they continue to receive their regular pay and benefits while the review is underway. They are barred from performing law-enforcement duties, and they may be asked to turn in their badges, firearms and department-issued equipment during the leave period. Reviews of this scope can take weeks or months, and the leave is often extended while the review is ongoing. Residents who want to follow the status of the leave can submit open-records requests to the city clerk or check council meeting agendas for updates.

Why Sheriff’s Office Costs Are High

Sheriff’s offices that take over policing in smaller cities typically face significant costs. They must assign deputies exclusively to the contract city, maintain patrol coverage around the clock, and provide dispatch and records services. For a city the size of Prichard, the cost of full coverage can run into the millions of dollars per year, which is more than many smaller municipalities can afford. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office has been absorbing those costs since it began patrolling Prichard, and Burch has said repeatedly that the current arrangement is not sustainable without a funded contract.

How Residents Can Stay Informed

Prichard residents who want to follow the public-safety situation can watch for updates at city council meetings, which are open to the public and streamed online. The city clerk’s office posts agendas and minutes on the city’s website, and council members have said they will continue to push for public updates as negotiations with the sheriff’s office progress. Local media outlets are also covering the situation closely, and residents can expect additional reporting as new details emerge in the coming days.

What It Means for City Employees on Leave

Officers on administrative leave in Prichard will continue to receive their regular salaries during the 30-day period, and the city has indicated that health and retirement benefits will continue as well. Officers are barred from performing law-enforcement duties and are typically required to remain available during business hours while the review is underway. The leave is generally not considered punishment, but it can feel that way to officers who have not been told what specific allegations they are facing. The city has said the consultant’s review will be applied uniformly to all remaining officers.

Burch laid out the price tag for a formal arrangement in detail when he announced the deadline extension on Monday, Aug. 24. Under the proposal, Prichard would contract with the Mobile County Commission for the sheriff’s office to provide daily law enforcement service in the city. Starting a new sheriff’s precinct in Prichard would cost about $4.7 million, with roughly $2 million required every year afterward to maintain the precinct’s personnel — approximately 32 deputies.

Those figures are not lump-sum payments the city must hand over up front, Burch said, but allocations in the county’s budget that the city would agree to pay. The sheriff said Prichard has accounted for roughly one-third of his agency’s calls for service since deputies took over policing there in June, and that the deputies and dispatchers assigned to the city are stressed and spent after months of extended hours.

“My point in setting the deadline is our resources are stretched so thin we just cannot continue with the level of service we are providing without being able to hire additional deputies to provide that service,” Burch said. “We will continue to do the major crimes and crime scene investigations that we have done for years. However, we will start dialing back the patrol and dispatch services” if no deal is reached.

“For the sake of the citizens of Prichard, they need to figure out how to contract with us for whatever period of time it takes to hire the right officers to provide the right services any citizen deserves,” he said. “We cannot continue everything we are doing right now.”