Making Contact

Just 20 minutes north of Birmingham on Interstate 22, Brookside, Alabama is a working-class town with less than 1,300 residents. From 2018 to 2020, income from traffic fines and forfeitures increased 640%, making up 49% of the town’s revenue. In 2019, Brookside saw its first lawsuit that included allegations of racism and police misconduct. It caught national attention for being a predatory speed trap in 2022 and now facing a class-action federal lawsuit. Thank you to our podcast partner, 70 Million, for the story “Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became A Legal Black Hole.”  Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. FEATURING: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Archibald, Brookside residents Sandra Harris an