Is Tennessee the worst state for this stuff? I’m highly surprised to see this much trouble in a supposedly red state.
Background checks flag 48 Tennessee State Troopers, Governor orders probe after questions from The Tennessean Newspaper. All have Criminal Records, some Troopers have Felony Convictions yet still serve, carry firearms and have powers of arrest!
By BRAD SCHRADE
Staff Writer
Tennessean Exclusive
The Tennessee Highway Patrol has 48 officers with charges on
their record ranging from suspended driver’s license issues to
felonies, according to a background check of the entire
department ordered by Gov. Phil Bredesen yesterday.
That’s about one of every 18 officers on the force of 855.
The governor ordered the screenings in response to questions from The Tennessean about
background checks on THP officers mentioned in a memo from the commander of the patrol.
“There is an issue for me in how the department operates,” Bredesen said in response to this
inquiry and others by the paper. “My reaction was, ‘I’m getting expletives tired of The
Tennessean doing our work for us. Let’s go do some work.’”
The newspaper inquired this week about an Oct. 12 memo from Col. Lynn Pitts, commander of
the patrol, telling officers that they would have to pass background checks to access a federal
criminal database. If officers have felonies on their records, it is their responsibility to get them
expunged, the memo said.
That inquiry closely followed a report by The Tennessean that two-thirds of officers promoted
since Bredesen took office gave money to his campaign or had relatives or patrons who did.
Bredesen said yesterday that he would ask an independent law enforcement consultant to review
practices at the THP, including the promotion issues.
He also ordered the Department of Personnel to review files for the remaining 807 troopers to
look for non-criminal issues.
“What I’d like to come out of this all with is … that I can look everybody — the Lord, to the
public, to the press, to my wife — in the eye and say ‘I’ve done everything I know with the data
that’s available over there to identify any problems and take care of it,’ “ Bredesen said.
The 48 officers showed up in either a driver’s license records database or the National Crime
Information Center database, said Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the TBI, which conducted
the checks at Bredesen’s behest.
Some of the troopers had been charged with multiple offenses, as many as three in some cases,
Johnson said.
The THP, the TBI and the governor’s office declined yesterday to identify any troopers who had
been charged with any crimes, or, for the most part, to detail the offenses involved. THP officials
did identify two offenses, although they did not name the troopers. One was larceny; another was
assault.
One reason they cited for not disclosing specifics was that they do not know the outcomes of the
cases.
The NCIC information is confidential by law, and the outcome of some of the charges is not
specified in the database — state officials must glean that information themselves from court
officials.
State Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips, whose agency oversees the THP, was told late
yesterday afternoon about the 48 troopers who had shown up in the TBI review, department
spokeswoman Melissa McDonald said. Phillips said he would “take proper action of what the
TBI finds … and welcomes and supports the broadening probe” of his agency, she said.
Bredesen has also asked the TBI to work with a lawyer in the state Department of Safety to
review all Internal Affairs investigations of the department dating back years to determine if any
other cases require action.
“They are going to work backward to review those records to see if there are any other matters
that need to be reviewed by the TBI,” Bredesen said.
The idea behind expungement, the process that Pitts suggested in his memo, is that the crime is
no longer public. The purpose of the process is to help rehabilitate a first offender without
staining them for the rest of their life, said Nashville lawyer David Raybin. He helped author the
state’s expungement law.
However, the trooper’s underlying conduct — the action that resulted in the charges — could be
grounds for sanctioning that officer, said Raybin, who also represents the local chapter of the
Fraternal Order of Police.
The governor said yesterday that he wasn’t holding any individual in the department responsible
for problems, but that he wanted more information.
He said he had asked TBI Director Mark Gwyn to provide a report within a week about the 48
officers in question.
The TBI has broad exemptions from the state’s public-records laws, but Bredesen pledged that
when Gwyn issues a report, the governor will make it public.
“When I have that information, we will decide what is the appropriate action ranging from ‘sin no
more,’ ‘watch yourself,’ to termination conceivably,” the governor said.
Bredesen said “one of the more serious” issues would be if officers lied on their applications
regarding prior convictions. That would lead to immediate termination, he said.
“If they lied on the application, I don’t want to hear any more about it, you’re gone,” he said.
Bredesen’s order of the background checks came after the newspaper began asking questions
about the Pitts memo.
“If a felony conviction is found during a background check it will be your responsibility to
rectify these records by either expungement or other legal process,” Pitts said in the memo,
adding in bold, “It is imperative that you attend to this issue immediately.”
The checks are a new requirement as the patrol works to have all its officers cleared to use the
federal database.
“Failure to provide the necessary documentation and/or meet the qualifications as stated shall
disqualify you from obtaining certification,” Pitts’ memo said. “It could also effect your position
with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.”
In an interview yesterday, the colonel said the memo was not asking officers with criminal
problems to try to hide them. He said it was simply a courtesy to officers.
“Not anywhere in here have they been told to do anything illegal, been told to hide something or
take something off …” Pitts said. “It does not say that, it has not said that … If you have a felony
conviction and I find it out, you’re going on leave without pay immediately.”
However, the governor, when asked in an interview about the wording, said it was “not an
acceptable paragraph.”
“Somebody read that paragraph to me — it sort of read to me like ‘I don’t really care if you have
a felony conviction or not. Just take care of it,’ “ Bredesen said.
The Oct. 12 memo told officers that THP would be doing background checks; but as of yesterday
afternoon, only 200 had been done. Bredesen stepped in yesterday and had TBI do all 855 checks
in one day.
Raybin said he saw nothing sinister in Pitts’ memo. Because expungements follow probation
periods that can last several years, criminal defense lawyers sometimes forget to file the
necessary court papers to get their clients’ charges expunged, Raybin said.
Pitts’ memo could have been misconstrued because it’s not possible to expunge a conviction,
Raybin said.
“I think he was probably focusing on officers who had those old post-trial diversions where their
lawyers had not expunged it,” Raybin said.
Pitts said the department performs background checks on officer candidates before they are
hired, but said there had been some instances where officers may have transferred into the
department from other state agencies without such checks by the THP, which is part of the
Department of Safety.
As of yesterday afternoon, the department was continuing to conduct its own background checks
separate from the TBI, according to Phillips. About 200 of those had been completed, and he
said two had flags that raised a concern.
One officer had a larceny charge show up in his background and another had an assault charge.
Phillips said he did not know the nature of the offenses or whether they resulted in convictions.
“If I find someone who has a criminal conviction, you’ll know about it because I’m going to fire
them,” Phillips said.
Since laws over the years have been greatly expanded as to what constitutes a felony (and no end in sight for this trend), these sort of ‘scandals’ will become more and more prevalent.
AlGore was a second generation senator from Tennessee. However, PC hiring practices and affirmative action have made this a nationwide problem. Until this down turn in the economy, finding anyone qualified who would work as a policeman was becoming impossible. Now there is no money to hire the qualified candidates. Tennessee is probably just a little more honest about their bad apples.
Insider hiring. You get your cousin Jimmy Joe who comes up and asks for a favor. You arrange via the town council or sheriff for the guy to get a job. He stays two years...then moves to another job, and no one asks any questions. You start to wonder about certain robberies around your community...and then realize that the only people who get out at night and have a chance to know what’s going on at 1AM...is the local cops. Why be surprised? Oh, and if you think it’s just Tenn....think again...Bama has the same issue.
It’s Okay For a Cop (the New Key West Police Chief) To Have sex With a Minor (17 yr old boy) in a patrol car and at his home
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This Attorney after having been convicted for three nickels with mandatory jail time is given community service to work on land development deals for the city and county .... precisely what he was convicted of feloniously doing for his clients
Convicted on FBI Tapes @ Nudist Bar, Key West Bag Man Gets Only Probation From Retiring Judge
You can't make this stuff up
Key West PD
In June 1984, the Key West Police Department in Monroe County, Florida was declared a criminal enterprise under the Federal RICO statutes after a lengthy United States Department of Justice investigation. Several high-ranking officers of the department, including Deputy Police Chief Raymond Cassamayor, were arrested on federal charges of running a protection racket for illegal cocaine smugglers. At trial, a witness testified he routinely delivered bags of cocaine to the Deputy Chief's office at City Hall.
Click on Headline:
Key West Police Department Called a 'Criminal Enterprise' - New York Times
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