According to the Scottsboro Police Chief, Ralph Dawe, as of Wednesday, April 24, 2019, it became necessary for them to scale back their procedure for funeral procession escorts. This amended procedure will remain in force until further notice.
The change has become a necessity due to workforce shortages and increased traffic, which has caused a problem in providing funeral escorts through city traffic.
The new procedure will be as follows: one patrol officer will assist the funeral procession through its first major intersection upon exiting the funeral home parking lot. After that, the funeral procession will be expected to obey traffic laws and stop at the traffic lights as they would regularly.
The Scottsboro Police Department has historically assisted with approximately 300 funeral escorts per year. Unfortunately, they are currently shorthanded with four (4) patrol officer openings. A couple of active officers are approaching retirement shortly, and some anticipate taking advantage of other employment opportunities.
With as many as four funeral escorts in any given day, requiring four to six officers per escort (depending on the destination of the procession), other emergency calls (an average of 30 calls per 9-hour shift) that require immediate police assistance, as well as school traffic areas and high traffic periods such as weekday afternoons, it is very difficult to safely conduct a funeral escort and risk injury to the procession participants, other motorists, and patrol officers.
While the police department regrets having to suspend the traditional funeral escort service they have provided for many years, they must keep safety as their top priority. They want the public to know that they are still committed to serving them in the most productive and safest way possible.
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