Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office

The Sheriff's Patrol is the backbone of the office. With approximately 1340 square miles to patrol in the second largest county in Alabama, this is no small task. A few other facts:

Tuscaloosa County has the most road mileage in the state.
Patrol had 47,066 calls for service in 2000. The office recorded approximately 5,000 calls for service in 1990. Click here for patrol statistics.
Domestic Violence and alarm calls are the most common patrol calls.
A specific court transport unit handles the needs of the District and Circuit courts as officers of those courts.
The office is capable of land, water and air patrol and is prepared for natural disasters and acclimate weather via response planning.

The office operates a take home vehicle program. This program allows vehicles to be assigned to individual deputies and permits quick responses to emergencies from their residences. This program has also proven cost effective as the per unit maintenance cost have been reduced due to better care. The fleet includes over 55 marked units.

This division performs many functions. The foremost is to protect and serve the citizens of Tuscaloosa County. These responsibilities include the enforcement of all state and federal laws involving criminal offenses. There are 40 deputies assigned to the Patrol Division. Of these, six are Resident Deputies assigned to the Holt, Coaling, and McCalla areas. The resident Deputies are supervised by Sgt. Ben Tingle.

To the left is one of the Mercedes-Benz M-Class patrol units. The department operates several of these units in a partnership with the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa County. It is one of the many different types of vehicles used by the Sheriff's Office Patrol Division.

Selected Traffic Enforcement is also a responsibility of the Patrol Division. This program is specifically designed to help curtail traffic related offenses. If you have a traffic complaint in the county, you may e-mail here.

Deputies work 12 hour shifts which run from 9 to 9. Each shift has an "A" and "B" rotation with a Sergeant over each rotation. The Patrol Division is supervised by Lt. Eric Bailey who is the Patrol Division Commander.