Only Mayor Randall Woodfin Has the Statutory Power to Enforce Birmingham’s Public Safety Laws

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on October 3, 2024

Mayor Randall Woodfin speaks at the White House, as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden look on.

An Editorial Opinion

Across the Birmingham metro-area and throughout the nation, people are talking about Birmingham’s increasingly violent street crime and its recent spree of mass shootings.  I have been bombarded with questions about who has the statutory power, authority, and duty for enforcing Birmingham’s public safety laws.

Article IV, Section 4.06 of Birmingham’s Mayor-Council Act of 1955 (as amended) says Mayor Randall Woodfin “shall have power and shall be required to: (1) Enforce all law and ordinances ....”.  This is the first duty listed for the mayor in the Act because it is the most important one. No other governing official of the city has this statutory power, authority, and duty. 

The Mayor-Council Act is posted on the city's website. The relevant excerpt from the Act appears below:

By statute, the collapse of public safety in Birmingham today is a Randall Woodfin problem.  Only Woodfin has the statutory power, authority, and duty to fix it.  The rest of us are merely onlookers, concerned citizens, and well-wishers.

If Mayor Woodfin will not or cannot provide adequate police protection to the residents of Birmingham, the Mayor-Council Act gives city voters the power to oust Woodfin at the end of his mayoral term in 2025 by voting for someone who will restore law and order in Birmingham.

Since 1955, every mayor who was elected under Birmingham’s Mayor-Council Act understood his awesome power, authority, and duty to provide public safety in the city.  Other than Randall Woodfin, no mayor elected under the Act allowed the city of Birmingham to join the dreaded list of the 15 most dangerous cities in America.  Woodfin stands alone on that mountaintop.

Since February, Birmingham has experienced three mass shootings and almost daily homicides due to gun violence. Today, Birmingham is No. 3 on the Forbes list of the 15 most dangerous cities in the U.S. 

We can debate the causes of Birmingham's public safety crisis all day long, but only Mayor Randall Woodfin has the statuory power, authority, and duty to fix it. This problem will not be fixed if Woodfin continues to spend all of his time trying to: (a) shift blame for this crisis to other public officials, (b) hoodwink city residents about the severity of the crisis, and (c) silence his critics.