Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, sponsors HB 188, which would create a scholarship program for law enforcement dependents. The bill passed the Alabama House 101-0 Tuesday.(Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday approved a bill that would allow dependents and spouses of Alabama law enforcement to claim a $3,000 scholarship for post-secondary education.
HB 188, sponsored by Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, passed 101-0 with some changes made by the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee. The committee added language allowing money collected from blackout license plates as a source of funding for the program. The scholarship will also be funded by private donations and a $10 million allocation from the Education Trust Fund, according to the bill.
The legislation is part of a broader public safety package aimed in part at improving recruiting of law enforcement officers. Birmingham, Montgomery and other cities in the state have struggled to fill vacancies in their police ranks in recent years.
Treadaway, a retired assistant Birmingham police chief, later told reporters he believes the bill will help incentivize current law enforcement to stay in the field, but doubted it would help recruitment for young people that are not thinking about children.
“There were times when my kids were in high school and things that I thought about getting out of the profession,” Treadaway said. “We just want to let them know we appreciate the job that they’re doing.”
Rep. Travis Hendrix, D-Birmingham, a police officer, said he’d be one of the first to apply for the scholarship for his son that is in college.
“A lot of men and women in blue need any type of assistance we can get, especially helping our family and our kids,” Hendrix said.
Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, thanked Treadaway, a former police officer, and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, for bringing the bill to recruit law enforcement because of the lack of law enforcement and abundance of gun violence in Birmingham.
“1,077 deaths… this is just the city of Birmingham since 2017,” Givan said, adding that over 150 people were killed in Birmingham in 2024.
The bill moves to the Alabama Senate.
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