Area Police Crossing the Lines Confuses Residents
By Rick McCann
March 18, 2026
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. It was a cool dark early October evening when a woman driving home to Stapleton from her job in Foley had a minor fender bender.
The woman offered her insurance information to the other driver, but he wanted to call the police.
About forty minutes later, a Loxley police officer showed up which the woman found odd since she was closer to Stapleton then Loxley.
A report was taken and both drivers went on their way.
Recently, I witnessed a multi-vehicle wreck near Buc-ee’s and several people called 911. Once again, it was surprising the variety of agencies that responded.
Styx River Fire Department, Loxley police and the Rosinton Volunteer Fire Department all responded.
Firefighters attended to the minor injuries of the drivers while the Loxley police officers investigated the wreck and completed an accident report.
Increasingly, you see both police and fire departments responding outside of their jurisdiction and thought it might be confusing to long-time residents, there’s several reasons why this is happening.
One of the reasons is something called annexation which is when a local or county governmental entity incorporates territory, area, or property under its control often extending its laws, services, and taxing authority over the newly joined land. It’s a way for cities and counties to grow which is happening right now in some of the fastest growing areas of Baldwin County.
This increases that city’s population, and tax base while also increasing the response area of the local police and fire departments.
In a once rural area of Baldwin County, along Monk Road and County Road 3, a new development is under construction. The new 18-hole golf course and residential community sit south of Fairhope in the county is currently policed by the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department while receiving fire protection from the Barnwell Volunteer Fire Department.
But that could change soon because the City of Fairhope has been eyeing possible annexation of the new 310- home residential development.
The community would then have access to all Fairhope public services including its police and fire departments, utility services and be governed by the city of Fairhope.
In Alabama, municipal police departments have the authority to patrol and exercise law enforcement powers in areas outside their corporate city limits, known as the Police Jurisdiction (PJ).
For cities with 6,000 or more residents: The police jurisdiction extends up to 3 miles beyond the corporate limits.
For towns with less than 6,000 residents: The police jurisdiction extends up to 1.5 miles beyond the corporate limits.
A call last year about a deceased person being found in a wooded area of Spanish Fort brought the Spanish fort Fire Department, Medstar and deputy sheriff’s, not the Spanish Fort police to the scene. The area where the person was found was just off Buzbee Road and just outside of the Spanish Fort police jurisdiction.
As Baldwin County continues to grow and subdivisions and businesses continue to push further into what once was a rural area of Baldwin County, the lines of policing and fire protection will also expand or shrink.
The Barnwell Community is ripe for continual growth and may one day soon need its own police force.
To the north of Spanish Fort, growth in the way of subdivisions and retail stores is already happening.
A major planned golf community near Spanish Fort in an area called Longleaf could also expand the jurisdiction of the Spanish Fort police and fire departments. This area is currently serviced by the sheriff’s department and several volunteer fire departments.
We spoke with representatives of most city police departments in Baldwin County for this news story and only a few said that they patrol outside of their city limits but do respond when a neighboring agency calls for their assistance.
Locally, fire departments, paid and volunteer operation on a mutual-aid or a Memorandum of Understanding agreement that allows them to respond to assist each other during major fires, incidents or when a department’s staffing is low or no one is available to respond to an emergency call.
The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office has countywide authority and may patrol all areas of the county, conduct traffic stops and make arrests even on Intestate 10 and I-65.
So, the next time that you call for help from the police, don’t be surprised which police department responds to your call.
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