‘I was a victim of this police department’: Hanceville residents call for police reform during heated city council meeting
Published 5:05 am Friday, February 28, 2025
During the Thursday, Feb. 27, Hanceville City Council meeting, Hanceville resident Brian Campbell breaks down in tears recounting his long legal battle fighting charges brought against him by the Hanceville Police Department. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer, center speaks with councilmembers, Kim Brown, left, and Kenneth Cornelius after the Thursday, Feb. 27, council meeting. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Hanceville business owner Chris Johnson addresses the city council Thursday, Feb. 27. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Hanceville residents, including Denise Brown, left, and Sherrie Saunders, react to Brian Campbell's account of his interactions with members of the Hanceville Police Department, Thursday, Feb. 27, during the city council meeting. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Hanceville city employee Michele Allen Scott addresses the city council Thursday, Feb. 27. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Robert Powell addresses the city council Thursday, Feb. 27. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
HANCEVILLE — The Hanceville City Council delayed a decision on the future of its municipal police department Thursday, Feb. 27, after five former officers were indicted on various corruption charges last week.
Swarms of Hanceville residents crowded into city hall Thursday, Feb. 27, to air their grievances with HPD dating back several years following a press conference conducted by Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry and District Attorney Champ Crocker, where the two divulged a grand jury recommendation that the department be abolished due to the alleged wrongdoing of several officers.
Charges largely centered around the mishandling of evidence, which jurors believed to have directly led to the death of a Hanceville city dispatcher in August 2024. Other charges included the use and distribution of controlled substances and illegally accessing police databases to obtain information on unnamed residents.
Gentry said during the press conference that he had already begun preliminary negotiations with Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer and members of the Cullman County Commission to take over law enforcement services within the city based on a grand jury recommendation to “immediately abolish the HPD.”
During a nearly three-hour public hearing on Thursday, however, residents primarily rejected this proposal despite numerous personal accounts of neglect, corruption and abuse. The general consensus of those in attendance called for responsible and transparent reform efforts which would allow the remaining employees of HPD — who have currently been placed on administrative leave — to continue serving the community while holding those accused of misconduct accountable for their actions.
“I am in favor of us keeping a police department, a quality police department that has accountability, rules and standards,” said Chris Johnson, the owner of the local Nature’s Effect coffeeshop. “A local police department is going to increase responsiveness. In the worst of the worst situations is when you are going to wish we had a local police department.”
Johnson also said a more localized department would be able to better tailor itself to the specific needs of the Hanceville community.
“A local police force has the ability to, and should be, familiar with the community and all of its citizens to know which issues are frequent and need priority and addressing,” Johnson said.
Robert Powell, a member of the Hanceville City Planning Commission, questioned whether the dissolution of the HPD would leave the city’s municipal codes unenforceable and said the lack of localized law enforcement would begin to degrade the community’s sense of self.
“If we hand the police to the county then we lose any direct oversight. It weakens our city’s identity and independence,” Powell said.
The already tense scene became noticeably more emotional as resident, Brian Campbell, recalled his experience with former HPD officers. Campbell — who spoke through tears during several moments of his testimonial — said his first interaction with law enforcement apart from minor traffic violations took place in 2023 when two officers were dispatched to his home over what had appeared to be a domestic violence incident.
“I was a victim of this police department,” Campbell told the city council.
Campbell explained to the council that his late wife had suffered from Alzheimer’s and on the day in question he had prevented her from exiting their moving vehicle by grabbing her. He also said the responding officer, whom he referred to as “the officer from hell,” did not offer him a chance to explain and instead removed him from his home and “mercilessly beat” him on his front lawn to the point that paramedics had to be dispatched before Campbell was transported to the Hanceville jail.
“I’ve travelled all around the world as a buyer for a major retailer. I’ve been in just about every country you can imagine and let me tell you, the conditions in this jail — and I hope they’ve changed — were filthy. There was feces on the wall, feces on the water fountain, feces all over the floor. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in five years,” Campbell said. “I don’t care if you’re a criminal, you deserve better treatment than that.”
Campbell said his attorneys had offered to speak in his place during his discovery hearing to allow him to spend time with his wife during her final moments in hospice care. He said his daughter also passed away just over a month after his wife.
Despite the advice he received from his attorneys, Campbell said two HPD officers arrived at his home as he was making arrangements for his daughter’s funeral, but were later told to allow him to turn himself in.
Hours after burying his daughter, Campbell said he turned himself in and a municipal judge ordered him to be taken into custody and transferred to the Cullman County Detention Center.
Campbell was released on his own recognizance later that evening and was ultimately acquitted of all charges against him.
Each of the council members offered their sympathies to Campbell for his experiences, but denied having any knowledge of any of the incidents spoken of by the residents. Councilmember Kenneth Cornelius said the council had responded to the dispatcher’s death swiftly and had members of the Wallace State Community College police department immediately secure the scene.
He said he had personally reached out to the State Bureau of Investigation but was informed that a request would need to be submitted by a local district attorney. Cornelius said DA Champ Crocker was contacted on Sept. 5, 2024 to make the request and again on Sept. 13 asking that the video recording device in the police department be secured. After receiving no response, he said that Sawyer, himself and then-police chief Jason Marlin delivered the device to the CCSO on Sept. 20.
Marlin was among the members of HPD who were indicted.
Cornelius said council members received no updates on the investigation until Feb. 17, when Marlin informed them of the grand jury indictments.
“We hurt too,” Cornelius said. “My heart goes out to all of you. We have to fix what’s here now for the masses.”
Council members also shared that several employees who were not charged have resigned from the HPD amidst public backlash due to the allegations. However, at least a dozen employees have remained steadfast despite the controversy.
Michele Allen Scott, a 15-year employee with the city, said reform efforts and new policies had begun to be implemented as early as September 2024 and implored the council to consider allowing their efforts to continue.
“There has been wrongdoing by former officers that none of the other employees condone … No current officer has ties, relationships or extensive work history with the former officers that were charged,” Scott said. “There is a plan for success and we were already working to make the changes needed … We have a commitment for the future and we want to see our police department move forward.”
Several residents criticized the council for their choice of venue, which left many residents with no other option to stand in the hallway. Sawyer said he had secured an alternate location at the nearby Wallace State Community College, but said the council had been advised that it had missed a seven-day window to publicly declare a change to a meeting location.
The council elected to postpone its final decision on the future of the department until allowing additional residents an opportunity to speak and called for a special-meeting to be held Monday, March 10, at 5 p.m. in the Hanceville Civic Center.
