Tennessee Governor Bill Lee recently signed a bill to abolish community oversight boards in the state.
SB591/HB764, according to the bill’s official summary, “abolishes community oversight boards and authorizes municipalities to create police advisory and review committees to ensure the timely, fair, and objective review of citizen complaints and to make recommendations concerning such complaints.”
There are only two community oversight boards that currently exist in the state – the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board in Memphis and the Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board.
With the bill’s enactment, both oversight boards will now be required to adhere to new parameters established by the law or be abolished entirely.
Under the law, each board must consist of seven members – all of which are to be appointed by the city’s mayor. In addition, instead of investigating allegations of police misconduct and passing recommendations onto the police department, the new law directs the committee to forward complaints to police internal affairs. Then, police will investigate the claims brought forth by the board before forwarding their findings once the investigation is closed.
In a statement to WKRN, Metro Nashville Community Oversight Executive Director Jill Fitcheard criticized the law for giving the mayors “complete control” over the board, saying, “The majority of the board members are selected from the community, from community organizations or self-nominated. What [the law] does is it puts the power and authority strictly in the mayor’s office to be able to make this selection for the entire board.”
Meanwhile, proponents of the bill say that the new parameters created under the law will create a more efficient process for addressing misconduct and would take activism out of the equation, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
“I think it is important that citizens have an opportunity to bring their issues forward,” the bill’s sponsor, Tennessee State Representative Elaine Davis (R-Knoxville), said in a statement to WSMV. “This allows for that and, as amended, this allows statewide standards that have been proven effective.”
The law goes into effect on July 1 and gives both existing community oversight boards in Memphis and Nashville a total of 120 days to comply with the new parameters or be dissolved.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Image “Gov. Bill Lee” by Gov. Bill Lee and “Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board” by Metro Nashville.
