A bill that requires the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate all officer-involved shootings in the state would close records of the investigation, even after the investigation is finished, unless local law enforcement and the local district attorney agree to their release.
The change would affect the state’s four major cities that traditionally have done their own investigations and where by law citizens have a right to access police records after the investigation and any related legal proceedings are over.
Under this bill, investigative records of an officer-involved shooting would no longer be open by law.
Instead, the bill as passed by a Senate committee last week gives the district attorney and local law enforcement discretion to release them — or not — by saying “the district attorney general may disclose the investigative records to the public upon agreement with the chief law enforcement officer of each agency involved in the shooting.”
The change would be significant. More than half of the fatal police-involved shootings in Tennessee last year were in the state’s four largest cities, according to a Washington Post database that tracks such deaths.
The language appears in an amendment to the original bill and also increases the amount of death benefit for officers killed in the line of duty from $25,000 to $100,000.
The bill (SB2023/HB2091) is sponsored by state Sen. Bill Kelsey, R-Germantown, and state Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis.
However, Hardaway’s version of the bill does not include the same language as Kelsey’s and was amended to only provide for the increased benefit to families of officers killed in the line of duty. It removes the language requiring a TBI investigation altogether as well as how to handle public release of TBI information.
During discussion of the Hardaway bill in the House subcommittee meeting, Hardaway said that the original bill was “ambitious” and “originally intended to bring transparency and independence to police-related shootings.” But he decided that he would like to proceed with the one area of the bill where there was “no debate.”
Currently, all investigative records of the TBI are exempt from the Tennessee Public Records Act, even after a case is closed. While the Kelsey bill softens the TBI exemption by allowing discretionary release of records related to officer-involved shootings, it in effect strips away the right of access citizens currently have to see records of police shootings in the major cities because the TBI will now be doing the investigations, not the local police departments.
Increased controversy over officer-involved shootings around the country has put the spotlight on transparency into police investigations when their own officers kill someone. Most times, investigations conclude that the officers were justified in use of force. But video — sometimes captured by surveillance or shot by bystanders — has raised new questions.
In Tennessee last year, 20 people were shot and killed by police, according to the Washington Post database. Seven have been killed by Tennessee law enforcement so far this year.
All but the largest cities in Tennessee already call in the TBI to investigate after lethal force by an officer results in death. For example, TBI investigated when a Sevier County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a fleeing suspect who was said to have brandished a gun. Video footage was apparently captured by either a body camera or dash cam owned by the sheriff’s department, but the TBI and the sheriff’s department have refused to release it. The deputy has been cleared and was put back on duty earlier in March.
The major cities in Tennessee — Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga — have traditionally done their own investigations and some had argued they have the resources to continue to do this without a TBI investigation. The city of Memphis recently started asking the TBI to handle its investigations.
Just two weeks ago, a state House committee decided to delay a bill that dealt with police records — in this case body cam footage that is being increasingly produced as law enforcement agencies start buying systems to outfit officers. An amendment to a bill created mandatory confidentiality on body cam footage, including when it was related to questions of police use of force and misconduct until after an investigation and legal proceedings. The House committee decided to send the issue for study to the Advisory Committee on Open Government. Members of the committee noted the complexities presented by body cameras, and said they wanted to ensure transparency as well as protect citizen privacy.
At press time on Tuesday, the House version of the bill sponsored by Hardaway was scheduled for consideration by the House Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday.
Deborah Fisher is the executive director of the TCOG. Call her at (615) 602-4080 or email her at fisher@tcog.info. TCOG is a non-profit organization focused on governmental transparency and open records.
