Tweet
Photo: Matt Masters
That work has reached the Tennessee General Assembly, where the Senate on Monday unanimously passed police use-of-force reforms in a rare act of substantive bipartisanship. The policies were drafted with the help of law enforcement representatives, Senate sponsor Mike Bell (R-Riceville) stressed.
The legislation, which is set to be considered by the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Wednesday, includes several changes to the state’s policing laws, though Bell said some departments already have policies incorporating some of the changes. The proposed law would ban chokeholds unless an officer believed deadly force was authorized, require the teaching of chokeholds at training academies, require law enforcement agencies to develop de-escalation policies, require other officers to intervene in cases of excessive force, prohibit firing at moving vehicles unless the officer believes deadly force is authorized and prohibit the issuance of no-knock warrants.