Alabama legislation that would give the governor and attorney general authority to make interim police chief appointments moved one step closer to passage on Wednesday.

The legislation, HB14, requires approval from both the attorney general and governor on an interim appointment that would last for six months.

The legislation allows the two state constitutional officers the ability to make the police chief appointments for a city in which they determine there is an ongoing threat to public safety, or where staffing levels drop significantly below their averages.

The bill is widely seen as targeting Birmingham and Montgomery, two cities struggling with staffing shortages and high crime rates.

“We need to hold these cities accountable,” said Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, the bill’s House sponsor and chair of the House County and Municipal Government Committee. The committee approved the legislation. It now heads to the full House floor for consideration.

The bill is an amended version from an original proposal that allowed the attorney general or the governor to make the appointment.

Ingram said that requiring the two constitutional officers to both agree before an interim chief is appointed will help make it a more unified decision.

The legislation also now caps the interim chief to a six-month appointment. The previous bill did not have a timeframe in which the interim chief could serve.

Ingram stated that interim chiefs would provide assistance to the municipality before stepping down, even if they are volunteering.

The legislation was introduced last summer when Montgomery was plagued by gun violence, including a triple homicide at a Hispanic grocery store on June 4. Montgomery police chief Darryl Albert resigned last April, and the city began operating with an acting police chief.

The bill says the governor and attorney general may intervene and appoint an interim police chief if staffing within the police department must be 30% off the average staffing levels during the prior 10 year. The legislation also requires consultation with the district attorney and sheriff.

But according to reports, the city experienced saw a 19% decline in homicides and a 13% decline in non-fatal shootings. A new permanent police chief has since been hired, and thousands of illegal firearms have been removed from the streets.

The legislation is opposed by the mayors of some of the state’s largest cities, which call themselves the “Big 10” mayors.

“Mayors are charged with the responsibility of maintaining public safety in their communities and are ultimately accountable to their constituents for these operations,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said in a statement. “I believe that with this great responsibility comes the authority to determine who will manage and lead public safety units.”

It also has raised concerns from the Alabama League of Municipalities, which is worried about its “unintended consequences.”

According to Greg Cochran, the league’s executive director, their legal staff is concerned the legislation could be interpreted by a judge “to expand liability exposure of the officer and municipality that they serve.”

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin traveled to Montgomery to attend Gov. Kay Ivey’s news conference on her public safety bills, but he stated that HB14 does not have widespread support.

“We continue to share our collective opposition against such a bill,” Woodfin said.

Democratic lawmakers on the committee also expressed concerns about the bill. Rep. Kelvin Datcher, D-Birmingham, said he felt concerned that the legislation could create “political and arbitrary” scenarios of having the governor and the attorney general intervene to replace police chiefs in certain cities while ignoring problematic crime in other areas.

“We all hear the cities being called out, Birmingham and Bessemer,” Datcher said.

“But the county adjacent to my county, in 2010, was the epicenter of the methamphetamine crisis. You had another that was Ground Zero for opioids. No one talked about them.”

Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile, read off several recent headlines in cities like Montgomery and Birmingham, illustrating the creation of criminal task forces and the removal of thousands of illegal firearms from city streets.

Clarke stated that recent actions suggest progress in addressing crime.

“It sounds like something is happening here,” she said.

Ingram acknowledged that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency cannot address high-crime areas in every county with a task force.

“This is just a temporary fix,” he said.