US DOT concludes investigation, ALEA folds

When the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced the closure of 31 driver’s license offices in 2015, I printed out a blank map of the state’s 67 counties and began coloring in the ones that no longer had a place to get the most common form of photo ID.

Rural Alabama had been hit hard by the closures, but especially the Black Belt — the region of Alabama that takes its name first from the color of its rich soil but also from the concentration of African-Americans who live there. A few economic development projects aside, the Black Belt has always suffered the worst from Alabama’s sins, leaving its citizens with the least means the farthest distance from basic necessities, be it a job, simple trip to a grocery store, utilities like broadband internet.

…And for what? We now know the driver’s license closures saved little money — somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000, tops, according to Bentley’s former ALEA secretary Spencer Collier. The routine shortfalls in the General Fund budget typically range from $100 million to $200 million. The closures didn’t even scratch that. They were a naked act of political vengeance.

…”Based on its investigation, DOT has concluded that African Americans residing in the Black Belt region of Alabama disproportionately underserved by ALEA’s driver licensing services, causing a disparate and adverse impact on the basis of race,” the department said.

As it turns out … Bentley’s driver’s license closures were racial, after all | AL.com

sigh….