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.
State Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland, and state Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, are pushing a bill that would require government entities to post meeting agendas on their websites, as well as other basic government information. House Bill 2132 and Senate Bill 2756 would make it easier and faster for the public to get and review agendas for upcoming meetings. State Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland, (left) and State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, (right) have proposed legislation that would require government entities with a website to include meeting agendas and other basic government information on the website. The bill requires a government entity with a website to post its meetings agendas on the [...]
A bill that would allow a government entity to petition a court for an injunction against someone who was using the public records process to harass government employees failed in a Senate committee last week. Sen. Ferrell Haile, R- Gallatin. The harassment bill, sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, arose last year after reports of a man who city officials in Gallatin and others believe is abusing the process and wasting government time through multiple and voluminous requests with seemingly no purpose. Haile amended the bill, working with stakeholders including Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, which eventually supported the amended version of the bill. Haile characterized the bill as an [...]
An open records committee that has met over the past five months to consider the growing number of exemptions to Tennessee’s Public Records Act says it will recommend a new, more robust process to vet both existing and future exemptions. State Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, co-chair of an ad hoc Open Records Committee appointed by House and Senate leaders, said the task of going through 563 exemptions was too large to get done in the few months they were allotted. However, the committee is recommending two major changes: a process for sunsets on existing exemptions and more robust vetting of proposed new exemptions. “We’ve learned that Tennessee needs [...]
The Joint Government Operations Committee voted today to ask the Department of Financial Institutions to hold a public hearing on its rules related to public records requests after questions about the agency's proposed ban on photography of records and the requirement of a Tennessee driver's license or photo ID to inspect or get copies of records. Some committee members said that hearing public records rules of state agencies during the rule-making process this year has prompted them to believe changes to the public records act are due. The Department of Financial Institutions is one of many state agencies going through the rule-making process related to public records access. All state [...]