NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The director of Nashville's Community Oversight Board isn't ruling out legal avenues following the passage of a state legislature bill abolishing the Nashville board and others like it across the state, charged with looking into police complaints and shootings.
One week since the legislature passed the bill, the legislature's website showed the bill hadn't been signed by the House speaker or Senate president, or transmitted to the governor's office for his signature.
The Nashville board's director didn't rule out a lawsuit, saying a bill getting rid of the community oversight board runs counter to what Nashville voters approved not even five years ago.
"I think that any voter who voted for the Community Oversight Board is a potential litigant," said board director Jill Fitcheard. "I don't know for certain what people are going to do, but I know they are definitely different paths once the bill is signed."
Unlike community oversight board members, this bill says members will not independently review citizen complaints and instead hand them over to an internal affairs police unit. This is a stark difference to how the boards are set up now in Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. While the boards were created in the last five years in Chattanooga and Nashville, Memphis has had a board since 1994, with Knoxville having one since 1998.
