Tommy Tuberville Military Controversy Alabama

Tommy Tuberville Promised to Put the National Guard on 'Every Damn Corner' of Montgomery. He Hasn't Said What Crime Numbers He's Using.

In his victory speech, Alabama's governor-elect singled out the state capital and promised troops on its streets. Montgomery's police chief reported in May that violent crime was down 13%, and the mayor is asking Tuberville which numbers he's looking at.

MAGA Report Cards · Nov 06, 2026

Tommy Tuberville won the Alabama governor's race on Tuesday night. In his victory speech in Auburn, he picked out one city to go after.

"Folks, I am going to clean up Montgomery, Alabama. I give you my word," Tuberville said. "I will make it safe to walk the streets of downtown Montgomery, even if I have to put the National Guard on every damn corner."

The crowd applauded and cheered.

The coverage of that speech shows no plan attached and no crime figure. There's no word on what the troops would do, how long they'd stay, or what it would cost Alabama. It was a line in a victory speech about soldiers on the corners of an Alabama city.

What the numbers say

The people who actually run public safety in Montgomery have been reporting the opposite of a city spinning out of control.

In May, Police Chief Jim Graboys said violent crime was down 13% compared with the same point the year before. He said motor vehicle theft was down 38% and arrests were up 48.6%. WAKA reports the department has kept touting crime numbers lower than the year before at the chief's regular briefings.

Lower crime doesn't mean no crime. Mayor Steven Reed calls safety "priority number one." The point is that Tuberville promised troops without saying a word about what is happening on those streets now.

The mayor's questions

Reed answered with a list. In a statement, he said residents "deserve to know what current crime figures he is using, which crimes he expects a deployment to reduce, how much further he expects those numbers to decline and by when."

He also asked Tuberville to explain how he would separate the police department's ongoing work from any benefit of a deployment. And he said any proposal should come with a clear mission, coordination with local police, measurable goals and public reporting.

Those are the basic questions you would ask about any plan. The coverage of his speech answers none of them. We found no response from him to Reed's questions in the reporting so far, and Reed said he hadn't spoken with the governor-elect since the speech.

"I don't think the National Guard belongs on the streets of Montgomery, period," Reed told WSFA. "I don't think the National Guard belongs on the streets of any city in Alabama. So, I hope that's not a bridge we have to cross."

Reed also named what he thinks is going on. He said Montgomery gets a bad rap when people run for statewide office.

"We're going to make sure that we stand up for Montgomery," he said. "And we're going to push back on people who want to use it as a political whipping boy."

What the city actually asked for

Reed didn't just say no. He said the city has "a list of ways that they can be helpful," and that "the National Guard isn't one of them."

He said the city has faced pushback from state lawmakers on some of its public safety efforts, and he hopes Tuberville can help when "we're trying to address a problem" and get "blocked because of political obstacles."

The police chief has his own request. In the same May briefing, Graboys called for "meaningful bond reform" to keep people accused of violent crimes in custody. Bond rules aren't something troops on a corner can fix. Changing them is work for a governor and a legislature, which is exactly the job Tuberville just won.

Putting troops in civilian places isn't a small thing. In Washington this fall, Guard troops stood at a ballot drop box just before voting opened.

Reed's office isn't claiming a Guard deployment could never help. It is asking whether sending troops is a proven, cost-effective way to cut violent crime. That's a fair question for a man who is about to be in charge of the Alabama National Guard.

The bottom line

In his first speech as governor-elect, Tommy Tuberville promised to put the National Guard "on every damn corner" of Montgomery if he has to. The coverage of his speech shows no crime figures, no mission, no cost and no timeline. Montgomery's police chief reported in May that violent crime was down 13% from a year earlier. The mayor has asked which numbers Tuberville is using and which crimes troops would reduce, and we found no answer from Tuberville in the reporting so far.