For years, Brookside, Alabama—a town of 1,200 residents and virtually no serious crime—has used its police and municipal court to maximize revenue. Officers stop drivers under trivial or fabricated pretenses, drum up multiple citations, and then tow their cars to hold for ransom. Over just three years, Brookside’s revenues from fines and forfeitures increased from roughly $50,000 in 2017 to more than $600,000 (half the town’s annual revenue) in 2020. Remarkably, both the mayor and the recently resigned police chief believe those numbers are still too low.
