This was the year that some civil liberty advocates had hoped would bring an end to “policing for profit” in Tennessee.
But with lawmakers heading for adjournment, most of those reform measures have once again gone down in defeat.
In the end, the law enforcement lobby proved to be too strong, with police dismissing concerns about innocent victims, telling lawmakers that the proposed reforms were a solution to a problem that’s now been fixed.
Those practices were first exposed by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Our investigation first revealed how some Tennessee police had targeted out-of-state drivers — often people of color — looking for cash they could seize based on the suspicion that it might be drug money. That money was then used by those police agenices to fund their operations.
One bill — patterned after a law passed in New Mexico — would have outlawed civil forfeiture altogether.
Instead, police would have been allowed to seize cash and other property only after the person was convicted of a crime.
That bill failed to get a single vote in a House subcommittee.
“Legislators tend to be very pro-law enforcement,” said Justin Owen, who heads the conservative-leaning Beacon Center of Tennessee, which had joined with the ACLU in pushing for the reforms.
“Unfortunately, lawmakers felt that it wasn’t a pervasive problem, that the Department of Safety can only show that 67 people got their property back that was wrongfully taken — therefore, it wasn’t a huge problem.” (continue reading)