January 12, 2006

Approximately five years ago, Birmingham police routinely set up roadblocks at various intersections to check driver’s licenses, verify vehicle tags, and, presumably, scrutinize drivers who might appear intoxicated. Oddly, as soon as thriving business establishments opened at two of the several inspection points, roadblocks stopped. Eventually, other roadblocks ceased after former police Chief Mike Coppage left the city to go to work for the state.

With the city of Birmingham’s 2005 homicide rate nearly double that of 2004, and the number of muggings and armed robberies in the Southside and Lakeview districts (some in broad daylight) on the rise (police and city officials dispute that armed robberies and muggings have gotten worse), roadblocks would seem to be a common-sense approach to perhaps getting control of an ever-present danger.

The first two days of 2006 included two more homicides, and police have recently been quoted as saying they have no control over what people who carry guns do with them. Mayor Bernard Kincaid has noted on several occasions that most of the homicides are domestic-related and questions whether police can deter disputes that occur in homes between acquaintances. “Some of the issues seem to be beyond our control,” Kincaid said at a January 3 press conference. “The chief [Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn] reports to me that there were two phenomena that characterized what happened in 2005. First of all, the crime rate in the city was down at last report. Secondly, that homicides went up, and there were two disturbing factors about that: The large percentage of those homicides were black on black. And that they were acquaintances, they were not strangers killing strangers. If any intervention is sought, it has to deal with interpersonal relationships—anger management and conflict resolution.” Kincaid said Nunn is currently working on a proposal that will be unveiled the second week of January.

When asked if roadblocks would ever be brought back into regular use, Kincaid said probably not. “That’s fraught with a lot of issues that I wouldn’t want to sanction at this point,” explained the Mayor. “The issue of whether roadblocks are deployed becomes an issue of whether or not it’s the beginning of racial profiling. All of that issue came up before. The negative side of that seems to outweigh the positive benefit. We have things like project ICE—that’s ‘Isolate the Criminal Element.’ Stiffer penalties are attached to gun crimes and that kind of thing, the illegal possession of guns.” Kincaid added that the city has also been working with the Drug Enforcement Agency to see what the city’s role should be in conjunction with the DEA and other task forces. &