There’s been a big blow to those seeking more transparency in officer-involved shootings. A bill that would have required the TBI to investigate all fatal police shootings and provide the information to the public is dead.
The bill in Nashville would have made law what is now just gentleman’s agreement between the Shelby County district attorney and the TBI. The bill died after the two Shelby County lawmakers who sponsored it pulled it off the table.
“Without support from the committee to support a fiscal note, we did not have the votes to pass it,” state Rep. G. A. Hardaway said.
Hardaway blames back-door politics.
The bill mandated an independent TBI investigation into every deadly officer-involved shooting across the state and public disclosure of findings. But like other proposed legislation, it had add-ons. That included an amendment that raised the line-of-duty death benefits for officers from $25,000 to $100,000, but there was no money put in the state budget to pay for that.
Hardaway described it as “petty personal political pandering that does not create good public policy for the people of Tennessee.”
State Sen. Brian Kelsey sponsored the bill in the Senate.
“We had the votes to pass the bill on the Senate side, but after the House chose not to move forward, there was no use in us moving forward on the Senate side,” he said.
After the shooting of Darrius Stewart in Memphis and the shooting of other African-American men by police across the country, grassroots organizations pushed for transparency in officer-involved shootings. For them, this is a big disappointment.
“We need to have transparency in our state, and for the mere fact that it seems like politics trumps transparency, it’s sad day for the citizens of this state,” said Dr. Noel Hutchinson with United Against Violence.
Both lawmakers who sponsored the bill said they will introduce it again next year.
The agreement between the Shelby County DA and the TBI only covers shootings involving the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Memphis Police, not officers from other surrounding areas.