Public Records Archives - Page 11 of 74 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

15 Apr, 2021

Body cam footage from officer-involved shooting inside a Knoxville school may be confidential for a long while

By Deborah Fisher|2021-04-15T16:35:22-05:00April 15, 2021|Categories: crime records|Tags: Knoxville, police body camera, police shootings, school records|0 Comments

Police body camera footage from a shooting that left a 17-year-old dead inside a Knox County high school is likely to be kept confidential for a while, and it's possible some of it may be confidential forever based on state laws protecting juveniles and mandating confidentiality of some types of body camera footage. Anthony J. Thompson Jr., 17, was killed in the shooting. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said that police were responding to reports of a student in the school possibly armed with a gun. A school resource officer was shot and injured, but it was from a bullet from a police weapon, the TBI has said. Knoxville [...]

21 Mar, 2021

Bill closes information about reported crimes involving minors on school property

By Deborah Fisher|2021-04-15T12:17:04-05:00March 21, 2021|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: crime records, juveniles, State Rep. Ryan Williams, student records|0 Comments

Proposed legislation that would make confidential law enforcement records of incidents on school property involving a minor passed the House State Government Committee on Tuesday. The bill is scheduled to be heard by the House Government Operations Committee on Monday afternoon. HB 368 arose from a situation in Putnam County after an incident involving two minors at a school, state Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, told the House State Government Committee on Wednesday. (See video of testimony and questions about the bill, including testimony from TCOG.) Though the incident did not result in any charges, a parent of one of the minors sought to get the law enforcement records related to [...]

21 Mar, 2021

Bill that closes information on arrest records moves to House committee with amendment

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-21T19:51:15-05:00March 21, 2021|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: arrest records, Glen Casada|0 Comments

Legislation that would make confidential an arrestee's home address on an arrest record was approved by the House Public Service Subcommittee last week. HB 901, sponsored by state Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, was amended to make clear that the street address of a reported crime would not be confidential, even if it was the arrestee's home address. (TCOG asked for that change.) The original bill also made confidential any video of the person arrested, but an amendment removed this provision. (Here is a copy of the amendment). The amendment also makes confidential the phone number of a person arrested, and the social security number. The social security number already is [...]

17 Mar, 2021

The Tennessean outlines why state won’t release $1.59 million McKinsey report

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-17T14:24:34-05:00March 17, 2021|Categories: deliberative process privilege|Tags: Gov. Bill Lee, McKinsey and Co., The Tennessean|0 Comments

A $1.59 million report by McKinsey & Co. on restructuring the state's workforce is confidential and won't be released to the public, a state agency has told The Tennessean. The Department of Human Resources told The Tennesseean in a story published March 9 that the taxpayer-funded report was confidential, citing the department's "deliberative process privilege." DHS has acknowledged to The Tennessean that it is planning employee buyouts. The state received the McKinsey report in September. This is not the first time the Gov. Bill Lee administration has asserted the deliberative process exemption to shield written reports. In 2019, the administration claimed they did not have to release written reports from [...]

11 Mar, 2021

Bill to make make addresses of people arrested confidential is delayed 1 week

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-11T16:39:32-06:00March 11, 2021|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: arrest records, Glen Casada|0 Comments

A bill that would make confidential the addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers of people who are arrested was delayed one week after lawmakers questioned the sponsor, state Rep. Glen Casada, about the proposal. Casada, R-Franklin, said that Williamson County officials asked him to bring the bill because people arrested were getting "bombarded" by those who were seeking to contact them after their arrest. "My county government tells me that a lot of individuals are being contacted and they don't want to be contacted," Casada said. Casada introduced an amendment on the bill that says if the home address of the person arrested is also the place of the [...]