An Alabama lawmaker has filed a bill, HB287, requiring the submission of police force numbers on a yearly basis.

The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, and states that all municipal and county law enforcement agencies will have to submit the number of sworn officers on payroll by February 1 annually.

The reports will submitted to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Attorney General’s Office.

Givan said the bill was filed after the lack of transparency from the City of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office regarding Birmingham police numbers several months ago.

AL.com left a message with Woodfin’s spokesman Rick Journey seeking comment on the bill.

Givan stated that Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, was also in support of the bill after extensive conversations between the two. Treadaway chairs the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.

“Especially with the number of officers that have left the city of Birmingham and over the course of the past eight years,” Givan said, “we thought it was very important that we do not lose sight of the fact that numbers have been given out to the press over the course of the past three months that have not been accurate numbers.”

Following the Hush Night lounge mass shooting in September, increased attention was brought to how many officers Birmingham had.

According to a column by AL.com’s Kyle Whitmire, the Birmingham’s police department has fluctuated between 800 to 850 officers over the last decade.

After looking at audited financial reports Whitmire determined Birmingham lost about 200 officers between 2021 and 2023.

But after contacting Woodfin’s office for police staffing numbers over the past 10 years Whitmire was told information was, “incomplete and difficult to assemble due to varied ways such data has been tracked through the years.”

The data was readily available as part of the audited financial reports.

In October, Woodfin said the department was down 223 officers and that number has not been changed since.

Givan, who is running for Birmingham mayor, said those in positions of power should not play with lives for “social media influence”.

Woodfin and Givan recently sparred on social media after Woodfin posted a meme taking a jab at Givan. Givan responded by saying Woodfin was a, “little boy in a big job.”

“We do not have time to play with the lives of citizens all for political gain social media influence and or platform influencing,” Givan said.

“This is about the lives of the citizens for which we have a responsibility to aid in the assistance of protecting and serving.”

Givan said that ALEA supports her legislation and suggested an amended version of the bill to include consequences for not submitting police force numbers.

If a department fails to submit their roster numbers they could either lose or have access to grant funding for law enforcement suspended.

ALEA distributes federal funding it receives from the Department of Homeland Security to state police departments.

Givan said the amended legislation would also require departments to submit accurate crime statistics to ALEA.