Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch says his department has continued efforts to improve community relations over the year since the tragic shooting deaths of several Eastside black youths and a series of Black Lives Matter protests. But some of the innovative approaches he had discussed a year ago haven’t made any progress.
For example, KPD was working with academic researchers to refine criteria for an early intervention program that identifies officers who exhibit problem behaviors, like using force too often or failing to report it. Rausch had said KPD’s criteria were rather arbitrary and the program to re-educate these officers could be more effective. But new criteria still haven’t been developed.
“The University of Chicago was working with us,” he says. “We’re at their mercy. I ran into the senior researcher with that a month ago in Pittsburgh. Evidently they did not have enough data, but he tells me thinks they have enough to do it and it’s supposed to be moving forward.” He says the researchers have now gathered more comparative information from larger police departments.
KPD also hasn’t started posting individual officer performance data online, as Rausch had said he wanted to do.
“We’re still kind of trying to figure that one out,” says Rausch. “We can’t really make it specific because of employee rights issues. It’s been an ongoing challenge to do in a way that’s fair.” But he added that he still thinks its important for the department to share what it’s doing with the public.
He noted that KPD’s existing online data initiative was held up as model in November when Knoxville hosted one of four meetings around the country on the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. KPD was an early adopter when it came to posting online cumulative reports about shootings by officers, biased-based policing, and other topics.
Another unresolved issue is KPD’s approach to dashboard camera footage and body cameras.
Rausch told the Mercury last year that the system for downloading dashcam recordings is out of date and inadequate. Some dashcam footage needed for prosecutions went missing in 2015, leaving police with no evidence that they behaved properly in disputed confrontations with black suspects, and leading to the dismissal of some charges.
Rausch had said he wanted to update the entire dashcam system and buy compatible police body cameras at the same time. But he had been campaigning to change Tennessee law first, to bar the public from access to body camera footage. (He has expressed concern about invading the privacy of community members, like domestic violence victims, whose homes the police enter when responding to calls.)
During the 2016 state legislative session, a bill limiting public access to body camera footage was sent to the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office for study. The comptroller created a subcommittee, on which Rausch serves, to gather feedback on the impact of such a law. The subcommittee has sent a questionnaire to agencies that represent both law enforcement and open government interests, and will compile a summary report for the legislature to consider next month, Rausch says.
In the meantime, KPD upgraded its existing wireless upload system for dashboard cameras a few weeks ago, increasing its capacity so more recordings can be uploaded from many cars at once, Rausch says.
Several of last year’s high-profile killings among young black men involved retaliation and revenge, and Rausch had expressed interest in starting a “violence interruptors” program, a model he had learned about at a national conference. With this approach, counselors or community members visit families in the immediate aftermath of a killing to try to offer support while deterring retaliation killings.
Rausch says he hasn’t moved ahead with this idea. But he has been working with a group of mothers who lost children to inner-city violence, and they might create something similar.
“We’re still early conversations with them,” Rausch says. “They want to do more with us.”
Rausch says KPD has made progress in other efforts to improve police performance and community relations. One example is mental health care: The department has been focusing on providing counseling and rest for officers who have experienced trauma, which prevents a mentally-unstable officer from working the beat. The department also has what Rausch says is an unusual chaplaincy program, with 34 volunteer chaplains providing emotional and spiritual care to officers as well as members of the community like victims and their families.
For more information on KPD’s training plans to reduce officer bias as well as efforts to diversify the police force, check out the Mercury’s 2016 “Year in Review” cover story on newstands or at knoxmercury.com Thursday.
S. Heather Duncan has won numerous awards for her feature writing and coverage of the environment, government, education, business and local history during her 15-year reporting career. Originally from Western North Carolina, Heather has worked for Radio Free Europe, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London, and several daily newspapers. Heather spent almost a dozen years at The Telegraph in Macon, Ga., where she spent most of her time covering the environment or writing project-investigations that provoked changes such as new laws related to day care and the protection of environmentally-sensitive lands. You can reach Heather at heather@knoxmercury.com
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