PORTLAND, Tenn. (AP) — The mayor of Portland, Tennessee, says an investigation has determined that the leadership of its police department falsified documents related to firearms training.
The Tennessean reports Portland Mayor Mike Callis announced Thursday that Police Chief Anthony Heavner, Assistant Chief Dewel Scruggs and Lt. Ricky Ellis have all been suspended without pay for several days. Callis says the city has received complaints over the past two years that accused the department of misconduct, negligence, incompetence and falsifying records.
In 2018, then-Mayor Kenneth Wilber launched a third-party investigation. A Police Officer Standards Training Commission investigation this year then found that all firearms training by the department in 2018 was "inaccurate."
A city release says measures are now being taken to train officers whose firearm training was lacking.
