More than three dozen former Metro Police officers could face serious disciplinary action by the state as a result of an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation.
Earlier this year, NewsChannel 5 Investigates first exposed how the Metro Police Department failed to notify state regulators after its officers got into serious trouble.
The state now says Metro failed to report 76 officers and some of them could now be banned from doing police work in Tennessee.
When police officers are themselves arrested or suspended from the job for 15 days or longer or even leave the job, the department they work for must report that within 10 days to the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission, the state board that essentially licenses all full time officers.
But the POST Commission's own investigation has now found that, in the last five years, the Metro Police Department has repeatedly failed to report its officers as required.
Ray Farris, the assistant director of the POST Commission, informed commission members recently that "there are a total of 76 that should have been reported to POST."
That revealed a problem much bigger than our investigation first exposed this summer when we found that Metro had failed to notify POST about former officers who left the force after they got in trouble for allegedly breaking the law or departmental rules.
After our investigation, Metro immediately sent 91 case files to POST for review.
That review, we've now learned, found 76 of those officers should have been reported, but weren't, including nine who had either been convicted of crimes or who have charges pending.
"The criminal charges that we did not know about are and continue to be concerning," Brian Grisham, director of the POST Commission, told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Grisham added that public safety is the commission's top concern.
And that's why the commission can suspend or even revoke the certification of any officer convicted of a crime or suspended from the job for a month or longer.
And there were 40 such officers in the files turned over by Metro to POST, including many we first revealed in our investigation.
Among them were officers who, we found, had been charged with DUI, showed up to work drunk, had an ongoing sexual relationship with a confidential informant, had sex while working a police sanctioned security job, or who tried to get drug charges against a family member dropped.
There was also the officer who, we discovered, was charged with assault after surveillance video caught him repeatedly kneeing a handcuffed suspect in a wheelchair.
An internal affairs investigation found he was both abusive and used unnecessary force.
State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, also a member of the POST Commission, told NewsChannel 5 Investigates, that "it's a concern that these officers could still be working."
Bell said when he and the other members learned just how many officers had not be reported by Metro, he felt he had to ask the question of what could the commission do to discipline Metro for failing to notify POST in a timely fashion as it's required to do.
Back in July, Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson told NewsChannel 5 that he wasn't sure why that hadn't happened.
"So whether that was a breakdown in the system, whether it was negligence, whether it was something else, at this time, I don't know. I'm having that looked at."
But our original investigation found Metro was actually cutting deals with these officers who got into trouble and agreeing to not seek POST decertification if the officers agreed to take a 30-day suspension and resign.
After hearing this, Bell told NewsChannel 5 Investigates he wants to know more.
"Do you think it's something that needs to be looked at?" we asked.
"It possibly could be, yes," Bell replied.
So those 40 officers who either have criminal convictions or who were suspended for at least a month now will come under intense scrutiny by the POST Commission. They'll take a look at what each officer did and decide whether it rises to a level that their certification should be suspended or even revoked.
If an officer loses their certification, they can no longer work as an officer in Tennessee.
That process will get underway in the next month.
And as far as any sort of discipline of Metro as the senator asked, the interesting thing is the rules say police departments must report officers, but there's nothing that says what happens if a department doesn't report.
POST Commission officials said this is the first time this sort of thing has come up and they will continue to discuss the possibilities as the process moves forward.
Metro Police spokesperson Don Aaron said the department has determined the lack of reporting was due to "human clerical error."
He assured NewsChannel 5 Investigates that steps have been taken to avoid similar lapses in the future.
Related stories:
