Oct. 5--A spokeswoman for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has confirmed reports that Alabama is contributing National Guard members to a rapid response force of military police officers to deal with future civil unrest. 

Just where and when that unrest is expected, however, is less clear.

"We are supporting the National Guard's mission," Gina Maiola, spokeswoman for Gov. Kay Ivey, said Monday. "It's my understanding that this is not for one specific mission."

The Associated Press reported last week that federal officials were putting together a rapid deployment force from military police units in the Alabama and Arizona contingents of the National Guard.

Those forces, consisting of 300 people from Alabama and another 300 from Arizona, would be available to deploy within 24 hours if other states asked for them, according to the AP report.

The move comes just a month before the Nov. 3 election, at a time when anxiety about post-election turmoil seems to be growing. President Donald Trump for weeks has claimed that fraud will be rampant in the coming election -- an unprecedented claim from a sitting president -- and in last week's presidential candidate debate, the president declined to express support for a peaceful transition of power if he loses.

According to a report last week in the Washington Post, the FBI and the Justice Department are planning to set up a command center to coordinate a federal response to any post-election disturbances.

It's unclear whether the Alabama and Arizona rapid response force would be part of such a plan. Both states were among 11 that offered troops earlier this year to quell civil disturbances in other states, which federal officials called for after the nationwide wave of protests that followed the death of George Floyd.

Ivey in June announced that she had authorized deployment of up to 1,000 Alabama troops for that purpose, if needed. In August, Ivey's office announced that 350 Alabama Guardsmen would head to Wisconsin in response to protests there.

What those Guardsmen did there, or when they returned, is unclear. Maiola on Monday said those questions were best answered by the Guard. Attempts to reach Guard spokespeople for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

For the Guard, nearly all roads run through Anniston. Fort McClellan, the Guard base that remains on the site where the Army closed a much larger base in the 1990s, is one of the Alabama Guard's main training sites.

Also on that former Army base is the Center for Domestic Preparedness, a Homeland Security training facility where first responders train to deal with a variety of disasters, including civil unrest.

It is unclear whether Guard troops have trained to respond to civil disturbances in recent days at either facility. Attempts to reach officials of the fort were unsuccessful Monday. A CDP spokesman, in an emailed response to The Star on Monday, said "it would be more appropriate for those questions to be answered by the Alabama National Guard."

Capitol & statewide reporter Tim Lockette: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star.

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