Ala. Code § 31-2-111

Whenever any circuit court judge, municipal court judge, probate court judge, sheriff, or mayor of any incorporated city, town, or village, shall have reasonable cause to apprehend the outbreak of any riot, rout, tumult, mob, or combination to oppose the enforcement of the laws by force or violence, within the jurisdiction in which such officer is by law a conservator of the peace, which cannot be speedily suppressed or effectually prevented by the ordinary posse comitatus and peace officers, it shall forthwith become the duty of such judge, sheriff, or mayor, to report the facts and circumstances in writing or verbally to the Governor or his authorized representative, and request him to order out such portion of the National Guard of the state as may be necessary to enforce the laws and preserve the peace. It shall thereafter be the duty of the Governor, if he deems such apprehension well-founded, to order out, or direct to be held in readiness, such portion of the National Guard as he may deem advisable for the proper enforcement of the law, and he shall instruct the officer in command of such troops as to the duties required of him.