QuoteTwo 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."
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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.

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QuoteIrondale's Public Safety Committee, charged with handling the internal investigation into who leaked information about the drug investigation, has yet to interview any employees or ask any to take a polygraph test as Irondale Mayor Allen Ramsey had suggested.
Ramsey requested last week that City Hall employees be interviewed and given a polygraph test if necessary to find out who gave a police report about the drug investigation to radio talk show hosts Russ and Dee Fine.
City Attorney Greg Morris said no polygraph tests are scheduled for the near future. He denied published reports that the committee has backed off giving the lie detector tests altogether.
"We may have to (ask for a polygraph), but we may not have to," he said. "We are just in the fact-finding stage."
QuoteThe plan for lie-detector tests demanded by Ramsey have been abandoned, said Greg Morris, Irondale city attorney.The article centers on the son's pending sentence for two armed robbery charges unrelated to the incident involving drugs that sparked the current controversy.