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  • An elephant and donkey fish together from a wooden dock overlooking a pond, beside a sign with “NO FISHING” crossed out and “VOTES” spray-painted in red.
    Briefing

    Can Cam Hunt challenge a Jay Jones write-in victory?

    If Jay Jones wins the November election through a write-in campaign, Cam Hunt wouldn’t necessarily have to accept the result without question. Alabama law provides a process for contesting elections. But a successful challenge would require more than pointing to something questionable about the campaign. That possibility raises an interesting question in Lee County, where…

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  • Barbour County Courthouse in Clayton, Alabama, with a Confederate monument in the foreground and American and Alabama flags outside the building.
    Briefing

    What the 2026 election means for Barbour County

    Voters in Barbour County will have several decisions to make when they head to the polls on November 3. While much of the attention across Alabama has been on the governor’s race and control of Congress, some of the decisions closer to home deserve just as much attention. Barbour County includes several small towns and…

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  • An elephant and donkey stand side by side behind a Jay Jones write-in campaign sign, with a blurred government building in the background.
    Briefing

    The unusual politics of the Jay Jones write-in campaign

    There’s something unusual about the effort to return Jay Jones to the Lee County sheriff’s office. A Republican sheriff who lost his own party’s primary is now receiving support from people who don’t necessarily agree with his politics, or even with each other. Jones lost the May Republican primary to Cam Hunt by 307 votes….

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  • Driver hands a phone displaying an Alabama driver's license image to a police officer through an open car window at dusk.
    Breakdown

    A picture of your driver’s license is not a digital driver’s license

    You get pulled over and realize you don’t have your driver’s license with you. But you’ve got a picture of it saved on your phone, so you figure that should be good enough. After all, it shows your name, photograph, license number, and everything else that’s printed on the actual card. The officer can use…

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  • Humanoid robot pointing to paperwork as a supervisor reviews and signs documents across from an employee.
    Perspective

    When human review becomes a rubber stamp

    I disagree with a lot of what comes out of California’s legislature. Some of their laws seem to create solutions for problems that don’t necessarily exist. But every now and then, they get something right, and their recently enacted No Robo Bosses Act is one of those occasions. In fact, I think every state should…

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  • A woman signs a document at a conference table while a suited attorney points to the paperwork and another man observes.
    Briefing

    Alabama’s Trey’s Law changes what an NDA can hide

    I’ve never had a problem with organizations using confidentiality agreements for legitimate purposes. Businesses have information they need to protect, and there are plenty of circumstances where an agreement restricting disclosure makes sense. But I have a problem when those same agreements are used to prevent somebody from talking about sexual abuse. As of October…

    Read More Alabama’s Trey’s Law changes what an NDA can hideContinue

  • Montgomery Police Department headquarters at dusk, with a marked police SUV parked in front of the building's main entrance.
    Briefing

    Montgomery’s police NDAs raise questions about what government can keep confidential

    A police officer already has plenty of information they can’t release. Criminal investigations, confidential personnel records, protected personal information, and security details aren’t things officers should be discussing with just anybody. Those restrictions come with the job, and there’s a good reason for them. So when a city decides its officers need to sign an…

    Read More Montgomery’s police NDAs raise questions about what government can keep confidentialContinue

  • Gray utility work truck with storage compartments, ladder rack, and a blue emergency light illuminated behind the windshield.
    Breakdown

    Can an Alabama police chief make any vehicle an emergency vehicle?

    Back in July 2026, I posted a video explaining that an Alabama police chief has the authority to make any vehicle an emergency vehicle. I didn’t expect that statement to be particularly controversial, but I quickly discovered just how many people on Facebook apparently know more about Alabama law than the people responsible for enforcing…

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  • Police officer writing a traffic citation while a woman argues beside her stopped vehicle on the roadside.
    Breakdown

    Asking for a supervisor doesn’t put the stop on hold

    I understand why people ask for a supervisor. Sometimes they think the officer is wrong. Sometimes they don’t trust what they’re being told. Sometimes they think another officer will see it differently. And sometimes they’ve watched enough videos online to think asking for a supervisor is the police version of speaking to the manager, where…

    Read More Asking for a supervisor doesn’t put the stop on holdContinue

  • Police employee reviews license plate search records while a supervisor examines an audit log.
    Perspective

    If one employee can abuse a police system 2,700 times, that’s not just an employee problem

    If an employee uses a police system for something they aren’t authorized to do, that employee owns the decision. I’m not interested in watering that down by blaming the software, the supervisor, the policy manual, or anybody else for a choice the employee made. But when it happens more than 2,700 times over about a…

    Read More If one employee can abuse a police system 2,700 times, that’s not just an employee problemContinue

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Michael Saad is a law enforcement veteran whose career has taken him around the world and eventually back to where it started.

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The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of any organization I’m affiliated with.

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