NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF — In a perplexing pair of podcast interviews, the Millersville chief of police says the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has begun limiting his department's access to certain sensitive law enforcement data.
It follows a scandal first dug up by NewsChannel 5 Investigates into the troubled police department for the community of 6,000 just north of Nashville.
"Once we start getting this bad publicity, our access starts getting cut off to financial reports, FinCen," Chief Bryan Morris said in an interview with far-right podcaster Tom Renz. The interview was posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"We can’t do investigations," the chief continued. "We don’t have everything in this office that we need, you know."
Renz chimed in, "You need the tools provided by federal law enforcement and other agencies, and state agencies."
"And now we’re being denied that," Morris insisted.
Specifically, Morris — who also serves as interim city manager — claimed his department is now cut off from one of the most sensitive law enforcement data sources available.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — sometimes known as FinCen — is a program run by the U.S. Department of Treasury that can give police access to certain banking and other financial records of individuals when there is a legitimate law enforcement purpose.
Morris claimed that, because of NewsChannel 5's investigations into his conspiracy-minded assistant police chief, Shawn Taylor, the TBI has now cut them off.
Renz asked, "Have they given you a good reason that they are denying you access?"
"No," the chief answered. "I’ve actually called down there and talked to them, and what I’ve been told is we’re on hold because they are auditing us."
As part of Taylor's many bizarre conspiracy theories — including claims that some of the nation's most powerful political figures are involved in child sex trafficking — Taylor has sometimes boasted about having access to sensitive data linked to some powerful people.
That includes the banking records for U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn's campaign.
"As a matter of fact, there may be somebody that's already close to her that has already provided that — just so you know — a file about yay thick," Taylor said in one podcast interview, holding his hands about six inches apart.
The TBI declined to comment, and the agency denied a public records request on the basis that any records it possesses are related to its investigation.
Still, individuals who have been interviewed said TBI agents are trying to determine if Taylor or anyone else at Millersville used law enforcement databases — including the FinCen data — to investigate their political enemies.
Chief Morris insisted it's not true.
"These reports we run, we’re not running them on just everybody we don’t like," Morris said in the podcast interview. "We are running them for a legit reason. And the ones that we have received back, we got what we thought we were going to get."
But it turns out, Millersville doesn't just have a conspiracy cop, they've also apparently got a conspiracy chief.
In fact, if Morris is to be believed, you'd also have to believe in time travel.
"You know, my assistant chief’s house got shot up," Morris volunteered during the podcast interview.
"It got shot up?"
"It was because he had been looking into things that people did not want him looking into."
In fact, the chief alleged that the shooting was my fault.
"The reason why his house is so accessible to anybody is because NewsChannel 5 posted his address," Morris said.
Renz shot back, "Oh, so this clown reports his address and he gets shot up?"
"Yeah," the chief agreed.
Not only did NewsChannel 5 never post Taylor's home address, the alleged shooting occurred more than a year before our investigation of Taylor.
Still, Renz suggested a theory about NewsChannel 5's investigation.
"This whole thing was just designed to undermine your ability to go after a child trafficking network."
Morris nodded, "Yeah, a hundred percent."
In the podcast, the police chief appeared to express support for the bogus "Pizzagate" hoax that Democrats kept child sex slaves locked up in the basement of this D.C. pizza parlor.
Renz argued, "It looks more true than we’d like to think."
"Yeah," the Millersville police chief agreed.
Then, there's the child sex predator sting run by Millersville with a group of MAGA activists — a sting also now being investigated by the TBI.
Secret recordings obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates from that sting show it was volunteers who were posing online as a 12-year-old girl — not police, as required by law.
But when one case went to court, the lead detective testified that Millersville police did all the texting.
In another podcast interview, the chief insisted the detective's version of events was all true.
"I had two detectives that were there the whole time that were the ones, you know...," he trailed off, then adding: "We actually have video of them doing the texting and sending the messages. Again, I welcome anybody to come look at it."
"So maybe they're making a story out of something that was just normal police work?" the Heartland Journal interviewer asked.
"A hundred percent."
In fact, the secret recordings show there were conversations about having the detectives pose for videos, as if they were the ones doing the texting.
On top of that, Chief Morris also claimed we had never tried to get his side of the story.
"I'm not sure what Channel 5, specifically Phil Williams, has against us. I have no idea. He hasn't talked to me," he claimed in the second podcast.
In fact, we had tried more than once.
The first time, he responded: "I don't have anything to say to you."
Then, the second time, he answered: "The reason why I'm not going to say anything to you is I don't like you."
Perhaps, most shocking to me personally came when Morris was asked about what he thought was the reason for my investigation.
"You know," Morris responded, "the only thing I can think is: you are a pedophile or you are covering for somebody that is. That’s the only reason I can come up with."
In fact, what the Millersville chief is doing to me — making outrageous allegations with zero evidence — is something he and Shawn Taylor have also done to other private citizens.
But, because a majority of the city commission appears to share their fringe views, they've shown no interest in doing anything to rein them in.
And, by the way, the chief also said if anyone should face any kind of consequences, it's me — for the trouble I've caused his department.
Part One: Meet Millersville's conspiracy cop. He believes the completely bogus QAnon conspiracy theory that falsely claimed Democrats had kept child sex slaves locked up in the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C.
He imagines sinister plots involving some of the country's most prominent political figures, including his theory — with no evidence whatsoever — that former Vice President Al Gore was involved in the disappearance and murder of 20-year-old Holly Bobo in 2011.
Taylor recently landed in Millersville as assistant police chief, promising to root out the corruption he sees there.
You can continue reading at this hyperlink.
Part Two: The controversy over Millersville's conspiracy cop, first uncovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, has now become the latest scandal rocking the tiny town just north of Nashville.
Now, two city commissioners want a special meeting to figure out how Shawn Taylor landed his job as the city's assistant police chief.
At the center of the controversy: Do Millersville residents want a high-ranking police official — with a gun, badge and the power to arrest people — who believes in bizarre conspiracy theories with no real evidence to back them up?
You can continue reading Part Two at this link.
Part Three: An attorney for Millersville conspiracy cop Shawn Taylor has told Millersville's city commission, whom he also represents, that they should not question the assistant police chief's bizarre theories or psychological fitness because his client Shawn Taylor could sue his other client, the city.
The attorney's advice, delivered in an email sent Thursday, responded to a request from two city commissioners for a special meeting to review Taylor's hiring following NewsChannel 5's investigation of the self-described "gypsy cop."
"Interrogating Assistant Chief Taylor about his political viewpoints or political speech will violate his First Amendment rights and thereby expose the City to significant legal liability...," wrote Bryant Kroll.
You can read more of this installment at this link.
Part Four: Anna Caudill agreed to watch the video of Shawn Taylor knowing there might be only so much she could handle.
"So we'll start this," I reassured her, "and then, when you've had enough, you just stop it."
In the podcast video uncovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, Taylor shared bogus conspiracy theories about Nashville's Covenant School shooting. Now the assistant police chief in Millersville, Taylor was between police jobs at the time he recorded the podcast with two other conspiracy theorists.
For Anna, the mass shooting was personal.
Among the three children and three adults killed that day was her friend, Katherine Koonce, the school's beloved headmaster who was gunned down as she tried to stop the shooter.
You can read more of Anna's story by tapping on this link.
Part Five: First, he went after Millersville’s former mayor.
Now, the town’s assistant police chief says his two critics on the city commission could be next.
Shawn Taylor, who has become known as Millersville’s conspiracy cop, made those comments as he turned to a group of far-right podcasters to defend himself against questions raised by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Tap this link to read from those Taylor's accused.
Part Six: Millersville officials are standing with their assistant police chief and his bizarre conspiracy theories regarding Nashville's Covenant School shooting.
City Commissioner David Gregory urged his fellow commissioners to demand that Shawn Taylor apologize for a 2023 podcast in which he had questioned the official story. Taylor falsely claimed that video released by police was actually staged.
But the three-member majority ignored Gregory's plea, just as they have refused a recent request by Gregory and Commissioner Cristina Templet for a special meeting of the city commission to discuss Taylor's hiring.
Read how this meeting played out at this link.
Part Seven: Bryant Kroll wears a lot of hats.
He's the attorney representing the embattled City of Millersville. He also represents Mayor Tommy Long, who faces accusations of misconduct in an ouster suit. Plus, he's the personal attorney for Police Chief Bryan Morris and Assistant Police Chief Shawn Taylor, representing them in a lawsuit against the City of Ridgetop.
To understand the role he plays, you can read that here.
Part Eight: In Shawn Taylor's world — in the immortal words of Taylor Swift — "I'm the problem, it's me."
Not his bizarre conspiracy theories — with no evidence — imagining some of the most prominent people in the country are engaged in child sex trafficking.
I explain how we got here in this piece, which you can click on here.
Part Nine: What happens when you give people with bizarre conspiracy theories a gun and a badge?
Secret recordings from inside the troubled Millersville Police Department provide a sobering answer to that question.
Those recordings — obtained from what was supposed to be a sting operation to nab sexual predators who prey on innocent children — show that, in their zeal to make some big cases, Millersville's conspiracy-minded cops may have crossed the line of what's legal.
Read more on this investigation by tapping here.
Part Ten: In an explosive new development that could bring new trouble for the already-troubled Millersville Police Department, a key player in a child-predator sting says the lead detective on that operation lied under oath.
These latest questions follow the revelation of secret recordings obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates from that child-predator sting back in May that, our investigation discovered, do not match the detective's sworn testimony in the case.
You can read more about that by tapping here.
Part Eleven: District Attorney General Robert Nash has asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look into the Millersville Police Department's handling of a child predator sting, including possible perjury by the lead detective.
In a telephone interview, Nash said he was also personally reviewing the one case resulting from that sting in May.
You can read more about that by tapping here.
Part Twelve: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has expanded its probe of the embattled Millersville Police Department, now looking into allegations that officials may have used sensitive law enforcement data to investigate their political enemies.
Sources told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that TBI agents began conducting interviews last week with potential victims, and District Attorney General Ray Whitley of Gallatin confirmed Monday that he authorized the investigation into the possible misuse of data.
Read more about that by tapping here.
Part Thirteen: With the Millersville Police Department now the focus of a TBI investigation, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has uncovered new questions about the stories that conspiracy cop Shawn Taylor tells about himself.
Those new questions include the stories that Taylor tells about the jobs he has held in the past, stories about retaliation he claims to have faced and stories that raise more questions about whether Taylor should have a gun and a badge.
You can catch up on the investigation by tapping here.
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