Birmingham Post-Herald reporter Taylor Bright covers the developing scandal in Irondale, Alabama, whose mayor had sought polygraph testing at city hall in an attempt to find a whistleblower. Excerpt:
Two Irondale City Council members want some answers — and perhaps an investigation into their own Police Department.
Councilman Simpson Berry said he has received many inquiries from Irondale residents after questions were raised about an incident in which police say they found a city councilman’s son with 3 pounds of what officers believed was marijuana. The 19-year-old son has never been charged in the incident, police and court documents show.
Berry, who said the city of Irondale also is being portrayed in a bad light on local talk radio stations, said he wants to put an end to the controversy by getting some questions answered.
“We want the public to have correct information, and we want the correct information,” Berry said Thursday. “Sometimes we can be blinded.”
Berry and Councilman Jack Boone called a public meeting for 4 p.m. today to discuss bringing in an outside person to investigate the Police Department.
“There might be some things we all need to know and possibly consider bringing some additional experts in to look at this whole affair,” Berry said.
“Just from the council, city attorney and the mayor, we need some other people to come in … and suggest to us some things that we can do and some things we should have done,” Berry said. “Maybe some of us are a little too close to the situation.”
The controversy centers on a police report detailing how police stopped Matthew Chandler Jackson, son of Irondale Councilman Ray Jackson, on April 28 and found three gallon-size bags of a substance believed to be marijuana in his car.
Matt Jackson was never charged with a crime nor booked into Irondale jail for the incident. The Jefferson County district attorney’s office is investigating whether a charge should have been brought.
Irondale city attorney Greg Morris declined to comment on the meeting or the councilmen’s request for an investigation.
Boone and Berry also said they want to find out whether the City Council was informed adequately about a request made by the Birmingham Post-Herald to see the police report. City officials made the report public after first giving an array of answers why the Post-Herald couldn’t see it.
“We can let the public know we are credible people; we’re not trying to hide anything and we want the truth,” Berry said.
Berry also said he wanted to discuss the demand by Mayor Allen Ramsey that city employees take lie-detector tests after a copy of the police report was leaked to the media, which led to the Jackson incident coming to light. Ramsey wanted polygraph tests to find out who released the report. He since has relented from the demand.
For discussion of this story, see the AntiPolygraph.org message board thread, Irondale, Alabama Mayor Orders Polygraph Dragnet at City Hall.