‘We’re coming for you’: Alabama officials launch crime suppression unit in Montgomery

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is heading a new task force aimed at confronting and reducing violent crime in the Montgomery area.

The Metro Area Crime Suppression Team, known as MACS, is made up of law enforcement officers from ALEA, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the Montgomery Police Department, the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The unit began training in June.

In the first 12 days of operation, authorities announced Thursday, MACS conducted 413 traffic stops, arrested 49 people on various charges, served 196 arrest warrants, recovered five stolen vehicles, and seized 33 guns, four of which had machine gun conversion devices also known as “switches.”

“We heard the citizens of Montgomery,’’ said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall at a Thursday news conference. “We heard you demand that you needed to feel safe in this community and we responded.”

As of Thursday, Montgomery police this year had investigated 43 homicides, including a triple killing at a Hispanic grocery store, the shooting death of a woman killed in front of her grandchildren on Mother’d Day, and multiple teens killed, including one fatally shot on Wednesday.

Arrests have been made in 26 of those killings.

Residents have expressed concerns about safety in recent months, especially after the April shooting of Amy Dicks, a 43-year-old wife and mother who was paralyzed from the chest down when she was caught in crossfire while stopped at a traffic light after dropping off her husband at a car dealership.

The shooting has outraged Dicks’ friends, family, and the community, many of whom attended a Montgomery City Council meeting to speak out against the violence in the city.

Five people have been charged.

MACS was created to investigate for prosecution crimes including organized crime, drug conspiracy, robbery, car thefts and gun violations.

“The citizens of this state deserve to be able to come out of their house, their kids to go to school and go to the grocery store and the baseball field and not worry about some type of threat,’’ said ALEA Secretary Hal Taylor. “That’s what we want to do – make a difference.”

Montgomery Interim Police Chief James Graboys said his department’s SWAT team and Gang Suppression Unit are part of the new task force.

“Their combine efforts have made significant strides in reducing crime,’’ Graboys said, “and ensuring that our streets are safer for all residents.”

Montgomery Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said the creation of MACS should send a strong message.

“This message is for people who think they can disrupt our way of living, disrupt our business community, disrupt these families in these neighborhoods and communities,’’ Cunningham said. “The message is, ‘If we didn’t get you this time, we’re going to get you next time.’’'

“We hear the calls, we hear the complaints and we’re doing something about it,’’ the sheriff said. “We have something, we’re targeting you, we’re coming for you.”

Taylor said it’s no secret that the Montgomery Police Department, like many departments nationwide, needs more officers on the streets.

“In the interim we, ALEA, are helping with traffic control and helping with calls,’’ he said.

The police radios are linked, and the other surrounding agencies can hear calls being dispatched.

“They know somebody is coming behind them,’’ Taylor said. “Other agencies are in the city, in the neighborhood while the chief is trying to get his numbers back up.”

Graboys said he did not want to release the number of officers the department needs, for strategic reasons but said he is working to increase the number of officers.

He also said MACS could be used as a model in other cities.

Marshall said the coalition is strong and unified behind a singular mission of making a difference in the community.

“This is law enforcement 101, using bodies to saturate areas where there is criminal activity and using the tools available to law enforcement to do our jobs,’’ the attorney general said.

He said it’s important that police officers be appreciated for their efforts, and the public officials stand behind them.

“When law enforcement is unleashed to be able to make communities safe, it works,’’ Marshall said.

“We need community and local officials to respect law enforcement to do a job and do it well,’’ he said, “and to be able to hold members of our community that need to be held accountable accountable for their actions.”

Marshall also said the community needs to be invested and involved.

“Law enforcement can’t be there all the time,’’ he said, “but you are.”

“I believe positive change is coming in Montgomery,’’ Marshall said. “This is just the beginning.”