From The Tribune staff reports
CENTER POINT — Officials here have scheduled another meeting — this one virtual — to continue dialogue about public safety.
Mayor Bobby Scott and the Center Point City Council heard from constituents on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, during a public meeting regarding how law enforcement is carried out in the city. The next meeting will be virtual: Tuesday, September 28 at 6 p.m. No link to the meeting has been provided yet.
During Tuesday’s meeting, residents here voiced concerns about gun violence, loud music, traffic and dogs freely wandering the city, CBS 42 originally reported.
A feasibility study by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama declared that Center Point would need between $4 million and $5 million for its own police department.
The study’s conclusion — that raising those funds would be challenging — doesn’t mean that this suburban Birmingham city will stop working toward having its own police officers, Mayor Bobby Scott said during an interview with The Tribune earlier this month.
“This wasn’t the end of the process at all,” Scott said. “We wanted to keep the public informed on every step of the process.”
Scott said that the long-term goal is still for Center Point to create its own officers. What that looks like may not be a full-fledged police force.
“We want to give our residents the feeling that they have their own officers seeing to their public safety needs,” Scott said. “We do have a public safety budget, and our job now is to continue finding the best ways to use those funds.”