legislature

Robert Houk, Opinion page editor for the Johnson City Press, looks at one of the top legislative priorities of the state's law enforcement this year -- closing records related to sexual assault -- and notes the slippery slope when police start advocating to make crime records confidential. His column is reprinted here with permission: Balancing the public’s right to know and personal privacy is not an easy job. It is something we in the news business struggle with every day. Most of the time we get it right. Occasionally, however, we have gotten it horribly wrong. What we don’t need is the Tennessee General Assembly messing with the state’s public [...]

From Tom Humphrey's Humphrey on Hill blog on the sexual assault victims bill: After being narrowed from its original scope, legislation to keep some information about rape victims from the public advanced in both the House and Senate on Wednesday. As introduced, the bill by Sen. Becky Massey of Knoxville and Rep. Mary Littleton of Dickson, would have made confidential all identifying information about the victim of a sexual assault from the outset of an investigation by law enforcement into the crime. With amendments since then, the bill (HB2361) would apply only after a defendant had been found guilty either by trial or plea agreement and only keep confidential the name, address, [...]