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When Birmingham Mayor William Bell steps onto the streets of his very own city, he doesn't do it like a regular guy.

That would be ... unseemly.

No, when hizzoner visits constituents in his own town, when he goes to dinner or – when he's in town long enough – stops into one of his city's neighborhoods, he brings a couple of cops with him.

To drive him in a big black SUV. To protect him from danger. To make sure everybody knows he is not just a regular guy.

And it costs a million bucks.

The four-member team of Birmingham Police officers on Bell's security detail – they're known as "the mafia" around City Hall -- averages more than $400,000 a year in salary and overtime, even though the highest paid among them makes $61,000 in regular pay. Records show that in a little more than two-and-a-half years officers Herman Harris, Jeffery Whitt, Eric Smith and Kesha Bogus have made a combined $1.14 million making sure the mayor feels safe.

Or important.

Bell once said "Don't wear a mayor hat." But man, a hat looks cheap compared to this.

And that doesn't include the cost of the official SUV often used to drive the mayor, or the four vehicles assigned to each of the members of the unit. It does not include the travel itself.

It's hard to know the total cost of the unit, because pulling information from the city about where the mayor is on any given day -- and who might be with him -- is harder than staying awake through an entire council meeting. Questions about how officers are trained and assigned have gone unanswered, by city hall.

Police Chief A.C. Roper said offers are selected based on "interest, qualification, work history, etc." Normally they are veteran officers, he said.

But Birmingham spends a big chunk of money. More than Fort Worth, where the police officers association last year criticized mayoral security that cost half what Birmingham spends. It's more than New Haven Connecticut Mayor Toni Harp requires – even though her windows were smashed during a turbulent campaign. She made headlines when the police chief assigned two cops to watch her during the day. The mayor of Rochester, NY, took heat for paying $140,000 a year for security.

And Birmingham pays more. If Bell's wife needs a guard, she gets one. If the mayor needs a lift home from the Wine Loft, you pay for it.

If you live in the city, you bought it. If you just work in the city, your occupational tax helped pay for it.

Of course the governor's security detail has become an issue of late, too. He keeps his detail on the road, and one member of his unit racked up $600,000 in pay and overtime in a four-year period.

The question, of course, is whether it's just a big old gaudy display of self-importance, or whether it is a necessity in the modern world. Is the mayor of Birmingham a target, or should he have the wherewithal to face the world as regular people do, as council members and mayors of most other communities do.

County Commissioner President David Carrington has no security force, even though angry opponents have begged to meet him in an alley. Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey makes it on his own, too.

"He just has me and my high-heeled shoes," spokeswoman Lori Salter-Schommer said.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle got rid of his security detail and driver after he was elected. If he needs security for a particular reason, it is loaned by the police department at no additional cost.

If there is evidence that Birmingham's mayor needs a security force, it came that night in 2012 when his security detail opened fire on a car after taking the mayor home from a party. But then, if there is evidence that Birmingham's mayor has no business keeping a portable assault force in tow, it came on that day, too.

Officer Eric Smith has testified that he pulled his .380 Walther PPK and fired seven shots that night. He reloaded, even though there was no evidence of anyone firing back at the time, and squeezed off two more rounds. A guy named Justin White was shot by the mayor's detail that day. He was never charged, although another man was.

But the issue here is the money, and what it buys.

The best description I've heard came from a city observer who recalled the ridiculously bedazzled hat former Mayor Bernard Kincaid used to wear. It said "Mayor," and it let everyone know who was boss – or thought he was.

"The security detail," the guy said, "is Bell's Mayor Hat."

And it cost us a million bucks.

Somebody should just spend $20 and buy him a hat.