Grand jury recommends Alabama police department be 'abolished'

An Alabama grand jury has called for the city of Hanceville's police department to be "immediately abolished", arguing the officials were acting like "more of a criminal enterprise" than as law enforcement.

It comes as five of the small town's officers - including the police chief - were arrested as a part of a probe into the department, local officials said

"This is a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time, it is a good day for the rule of law," Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said at a news conference.

The entire police force was placed on administrative leave a day after the arrests were announced.

The district attorney on Wednesday indicted police chief Jason Shane Marlin, officers Cody Alan Kelso, 33; Jason Scott Wilbanks, 37; William Andrew Shelnutt, 39; Eric Michael Kelso, 44; and his wife, Donna Reid Kelso, 63.

The six are accused of tampering with evidence, misusing state criminal databases and distributing controlled substances to each other.

The probe started after a 911 dispatcher, 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, died of a drug overdose at the police department last year.

The Alabama grand jury found that his death was the "direct result" of the police department's "negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life", Mr Crocker said at the news conference.

The grand jury found that the department more generally had failed to preserve and maintain evidence, allowing people who were not authorised to access evidence to do so.

The panel recommended that another agency take the lead in policing the small city because of "a rampant culture of corruption".

In a statement on Wednesday, Jim Sawyer, the mayor of Hanceville, said the city would fully cooperate with all probes into the police department.

He added that the city council would consider the grand jury's recommendations "and act swiftly and decisively to address the problems".