MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — Some Alabama lawmakers are already preparing for next year's legislative session, pre-filing bills on topics from crime to transportation.
State Rep. Reed Ingram (R-Pike Road) would like to see fellow lawmakers pass a bill allowing the governor or attorney general to appoint an interim police chief in high crime areas. This would occur if a threat to public safety is posed.
Ingram says he filed this bill early because crime levels have gotten out of hand statewide.
"This bill is important to have a benchmark that, if you fall below a certain level, then we go in and look at it," Ingram said. "Because public safety is number one," said Ingram.
Rep. Chip Brown (R-Hollinger's Island) pre-filed a bill to enhance penalties for illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
"You're already here illegally, so you've already committed a federal law," Brown said. "So when you commit that felony it needs to be upgraded -- it's enhanced."
State Rep. Ron Bolton (R-Northport) filed a bill that regulates lift heights on the front end of trucks. Dubbed "the Alabama Squat Truck Law," he filed it because one of his constituents almost got in a wreck because a driver couldn't see over the front of their truck.
"It gets so extreme where you've got seventeen, eighteen, twenty inches of lift in the front end," said Bolton. "It just impairs the visibility of the driver sometimes."
Rep. Ingram also stated Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter plan on bringing a bill package that addresses crime reform.