A new law requires all law enforcement in Tennessee to make monthly reports to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on the use of force. The data will include information from any police action resulting in death or serious bodily injury to a person or the discharge of a firearm at or in the direction of a person.
A recent report by investigative journalist Marc Perrusquia details the excessive redaction of body camera footage, obscuring information and leading to high labor costs and delays when journalists and members of the public want to view it. The report, "Inaccessible: Police Body Camera Footage Is Often Expensive, Heavily Edited And Takes Months To Get", was published by the Institute for Public Service Reporting in Memphis where Perrusquia is director. The report is especially relevant and timely because a law that allows redaction of certain parts of body camera footage is set to expire July 1, 2022. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]