EXCLUSIVE: State Senator Brent Taylor Wants Soft-on-Crime Shelby County D.A. Mulroy to Reveal Whether ‘Restorative Justice’ Group Has Special Access to Real-Time Bail Data

On Wednesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) tells listeners what he really thinks about Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and what appears to be his cooperation with restorative justice groups working in Memphis and across Tennessee to reimagine justice and reinterpret current law through their efforts, among other things, to eliminate cash bail.

Taylor explores different ways to hold district attorneys accountable, including potential methods for termination under consideration; as well as addresses the controversial release of a murder suspect without bail and his proposed legislation to remove Judge Bill Anderson from his role in managing judicial commissioners.

Read the full story

Exclusive: State Senator Mark Pody Previews School Safety Bill Proposal Set to Be Introduced Next Week

In this engaging interview on Tuesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) previews for listeners his new idea for school safety. The longtime lawmaker emphasizes the importance of this comprehensive approach to school safety and highlights the need to protect teachers from assaults and false accusations.

In addition to discussing the school safety bill, the interview offers a peek behind the curtain of the Tennessee General Assembly into the complex process of navigating and passing legislation.

Read the full story

Police Leaders Say ‘Legislative Fix’ Only Way to Resolve SRO Issue after Moriarty letter

The state’s largest police association sent a letter to its members last week saying a “legislative fix” is the only way to address concerns with a new law impacting school resource officers (SROs).

This comes after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty sent a letter Wednesday to the police chiefs in her county that reignited confusion with the new law.

Read the full story

Gov. Bill Lee to Propose Putting Armed Guards at Every Tennessee School

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee plans this week to propose placing armed guards at every school in his state, and he indicated that he is open to some gun reform measures in the wake of the shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville that left six dead. 

While it still needs legislative approval, Lee’s plan would expand a proposal to station armed guards at all public schools in Tennessee and give grant funding to allow private schools to also hire armed guards, The Tennessean reported Friday. The state cannot require private schools to hire armed guards, but it can require the guards hired by private schools to have the same level of training as those in public schools.

That means the new plan could apply to Covenant School, a private Presbyterian school where 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale killed three nine-year-olds and three staffers in their 60s last week.

Read the full story

Commentary: Even with ‘Defund the Police’ Discredited, Some Schools May Still Shun the Police

Des Moines Police standing at a crime scene

Des Moines this week suffered its first fatal school shooting – reigniting a controversy in the city after the district removed police officers from its schools last year.

Police say a group of teenagers in vehicles outside Des Moines’ East High School fired multiple rounds onto school property on Monday, killing a 15-year-old boy and critically wounding two female students who were bystanders. Six teenagers, some of them current Des Moines students, have been charged with first-degree murder.

The deadly drive-by shooting now hovers over the decision by Des Moines officials, along with about 30 districts across the country, to exile cops from schools. These moves were part of the “defund the police” movement that erupted after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It’s a movement now reeling in the face of violent crime surging nationwide, punctuated by President Biden’s State of the Union vow last week to “fund the police.”

Read the full story

Williamson County House 61 Voters Almost Unanimously Support School Resource Officers in Every Tennessee School

security at schools

A new poll conducted among likely GOP voters in the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood and Franklin by Triton Polling shows that voter concerns about traffic congestion, illegal immigration and rising crime are at the top of the list. Recent school shootings have also resulted in over 90% of the Republican voters in the District supporting placement of School Resource Officers (SROs) in each school across the state in order to increase security in our schools. The survey of 361 likely Republican Primary voters was conducted June 18-22, 2018 and has a margin or error of 5.1%. “School shootings across the country are clearly top of mind among parents in Tennessee,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill pointed out. “Currently only about half of Tennessee schools have an armed SRO, and 90.5% of the voters in this district support making sure that every school has that protection.” 65.3% of those polled supported state funding to ensure that level of protection of schools. Governor Bill Haslam included some funding for SROs in his final state budget, and several candidates for Governor, including Beth Harwell and Randy Boyd have expressed support for the Governor’s plan and that they intend to expand upon it.…

Read the full story