At a town hall meeting, Prichard citizens urged local leaders to “stop bickering,” a deputy questioned a state representative, and the mayor said the future of the city’s scandal-laden police department is in her hands.
Roughly 100 concerned residents filled the auditorium of Mattie T. Blount High School Tuesday evening, Aug. 4, to hear Mayor Carletta Davis and Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch speak about what should be done with the Prichard Police Department. Following the arrests of several officers on assorted corruption charges — including former police chief Walter Knight — a special Mobile County grand jury recommended Prichard abolish its police department and build a new one.
Davis scheduled the meeting to gather feedback from residents before deciding what to do with the department. She told the crowd their comments would inform her choice between abolishing the agency and entering a $3 million contract with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement while the city rebuilds, or cleaning out the existing department and filling it with new officers.
“If there is an overwhelming sentiment [for abolition], then I will have to go out and figure out where to get the money, Sheriff, and you will have to help me,” Davis said. “If there is an overwhelming sentiment that they do not want to contract with the Sheriff and they want their own police department, then that is what we are going to do.”
Before public comments began, Burch discussed how MCSO has policed Prichard since District Attorney Keith Blackwood directed the agency to take over law enforcement operations in the city in June. A fact sheet distributed by Burch’s office said deputies responded to 2,422 calls for service in Prichard between Thursday, June 16, and Tuesday, Aug. 4 — an average of 49.4 calls per day, comprising 33 percent of MCSO’s calls for the entire county. “We have made this work by stretching our existing resources,” Burch told the crowd. “The current model is not sustainable.”
Several residents expressed gratitude for MCSO’s help but supported keeping the Prichard Police Department intact and staffing it with new officers, while urging Davis and the City Council to reconcile their differences. “Stop bickering,” resident Gabriel Dortch said.
State Rep. Napoleon Bracy, D-Saraland, agreed with the speakers and told Davis and council members in attendance that the city needs them to work together. He also questioned former Chief Knight’s arrest as “a bit excessive,” saying Knight and Maj. Aaron Tucker were arrested on charges of escorting private funeral services while still on the clock as police officers. “To make $2,000 dollars for doing a funeral procession, I just think it’s a bit excessive,” Bracy said. MCSO Capt. Terri Hall pushed back, asking Bracy “when do we hold our law enforcement to certain standards?” and noting Knight and Tucker were “taking taxpayer money at the same time” as working outside jobs.
Speaking after the meeting, Davis said residents made clear they care about the department and want something done, while balancing the need for dependable law enforcement with the city’s finances. She said she met last week with Hayneville Mayor Jimmie Davis to discuss how that Lowndes County municipality handled dismantling its police department in 2025. “I asked him very bluntly if he had to do it all over again, would he do it the way he did it, and he said absolutely not,” Davis said. “He said he would have gotten rid of the corruption, of course, and brought in a good chief and rebuilt, not dissolved.”
Davis said she is working with Bracy and the local delegation of the Alabama House of Representatives for help. “I had a call with all of the delegation for the House of Representatives to let them know where we are and what we need,” she said. “They have committed to me they will all be working to help where they can.”
No formal decision was made by the end of the meeting. Davis must first make a recommendation on the department’s future, and the city’s budget must be submitted to the council for review and approval by Aug. 15.
Additional details emerged regarding the state of the department. According to figures cited at the forum, the Prichard force has dropped from roughly two dozen officers to just over a dozen, with the remaining officers largely handling traffic calls — a decline that appeared to catch Davis by surprise.
Davis also addressed pay for the city’s public safety and public works employees. “When you ask someone to put their life on the line and you pay them $17 an hour, it is not only sad, it’s just unbelievable,” she said. “We are currently in budget season. My goal was to get to this season to see how we can increase the pay for our public safety officers, our police and fire, also our public works department. … There should not be someone in 2026 making $9 an hour.”
Davis said she has been in contact with Sheriff Burch since 2024, before she took office, and that she asked the state economist to analyze whether Prichard could afford to create an office of public safety director to oversee both the police and fire departments, similar to models used in cities like Mobile. After reviewing those numbers, she said Burch suggested she also look at the cost of a contract for coverage, pointing to the nearby city of Semmes, which built its own police department in 2022 after roughly a decade of contracting with the Sheriff’s Office for an estimated $1.6 million a year. Davis said she concluded a similar long-term contract would likely be out of Prichard’s budget.
Members of the Prichard City Council attended the forum but did not speak and had no comment afterward; some council members have previously said they favor rebuilding the department rather than outsourcing to the county.
Several residents urged the city to pursue additional funding avenues, from grants to local fundraisers, and to support Prichard businesses to help bolster the city’s tax base. Bracy and other speakers argued Prichard has gotten an unfair reputation, pointing to national attention on a backlog of unprocessed sexual assault kits and improperly stored confiscated firearms — issues Bracy said have affected police departments nationwide, including in Mobile and Birmingham. Bracy also said he is participating in mediation, led by retired Circuit Judge John R. Lockett, aimed at resolving tension between Davis and the City Council, which are involved in a lawsuit that has been referred to mediation. “We really, really need for y’all to work together,” Bracy told the mayor and council, a remark that drew one of the night’s biggest rounds of applause.
Sheriff Says He Will Set His Own Deadline
In the days after the town hall, Sheriff Paul Burch said he plans to give Prichard a deadline of its own to decide whether it will pay for continued patrol services from the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, after Mayor Carletta Davis declined during the meeting to commit to a timeline for the city’s law enforcement future. “This is not sustainable. You know, with our manpower issues,” Burch said. “After I meet with my staff and my patrol captain and all that, we’re going to set a timeline, and the ball will be in their court at that point.”
Burch said that if no agreement is reached, his office would stop responding to daily calls in Prichard and scale back to responding only to major crimes, such as homicides.
Strain on the Sheriff’s Office
Burch said the extended patrol assignment is wearing on his agency’s staff even as costs have come down. Overtime expenses have dropped from about $18,000 a day during the first two weeks of the arrangement to roughly $6,000 a day, he said, but the workload remains a burden. “We’ve got dispatchers who are, you know, talking about quitting because they’re having to work so much overtime,” Burch said.
New data released by the sheriff’s office showed Prichard has accounted for about one-third of all calls for service countywide since deputies took over patrol duties, with assaults making up the largest share of reported offenses at 34 percent. Burch said the volume of calls has surprised many residents used to slower police response. “What we get when we make contact with citizens for calls for service is they’re just actually shocked that we showed up,” Burch said. “Because they just weren’t showing up.”
Cost of a Long-Term Contract
Burch estimated that if Prichard contracts with the sheriff’s office for ongoing police services, it would cost the city about $3 million to get the arrangement started and less than $2 million a year after that. Davis has questioned whether the city can afford that price tag; she said during the town hall that Prichard currently budgets $1.5 million for its police department. Burch argued the city could offset the added cost by eliminating expenses it would no longer need, including its municipal court, if the police department were dissolved. “They can do some things within the city to be able to pay for services, and I just don’t understand them not realizing what all they can do to do that,” Burch said.
Burch also said he expects the ongoing corruption investigation into the Prichard Police Department to produce more arrests beyond the five current and former officers, including former Chief Walter Knight, already taken into custody. “I do anticipate additional arrests,” he said. South Alabama News reached out to Mayor Davis for comment on the sheriff’s plan to set a deadline but did not receive a response.
City Council Declares Emergency to Hire Recruiting Consultant
Two days after the town hall, Prichard took its first concrete step toward resolving the department’s future. On Thursday, Aug. 6, the City Council declared a state of emergency in order to vote on hiring an outside consultant to help guide the decision. The city will contract with POLIHIRE, a firm that specializes in recruiting police chiefs and other law enforcement personnel, at a cost of up to $50,000.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to a police department,” Davis said. “We are taking our time and making sure that we do not put this city in a bad position by making a quick decision. I know that that may sound frustrating to some of our citizens. We are going to do what is absolutely best for us financially and for public safety.”
Davis said she planned to contact POLIHIRE on Friday to begin the process as soon as possible. City officials have set a 20-day deadline to determine what happens next with the department.
Mayor Details Consultant’s Role, Defends Cost
Mayor Carletta Davis said the POLIHIRE contract will pair with two community-based organizations — a citizens’ advisory committee and a local law enforcement group — to help guide the recruitment process and ensure it reflects residents’ vision for the department’s future. “We’re just trying to rebuild the public’s confidence in public safety here in Prichard,” Davis said.
Addressing questions about whether the city can afford the contract, Davis said, “we have not had a money problem as much as we’ve had a management of money problem,” pointing to budget reforms underway and the hiring of a certified CPA. She said competitive compensation and strong leadership are essential to rebuilding the department, and that her goal extends beyond simply filling vacancies. “I am trying to build a nationally accredited police department,” Davis said, adding that the POLIHIRE contract will remain in place until all vacant leadership positions are filled.