NASHVILLE -- Tennessee police agencies would be required to implement written policies banning racial profiling under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate.
The "Racial Profiling Prevention Act," sponsored by Sen. Brian Kelsey, a white Republican lawmaker from Germantown, passed 28-0.
It is one of several proposed bills introduced in the Legislature this year in response to last summer's shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., as well as additional incidences of deaths involving unarmed black suspects by officers across the country.
"Racial profiling has no place in law enforcement in this state," Kelsey, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told colleagues. "Senate Bill 6 would ensure that is the case. This is an idea whose time has come."
The House version of the bill is sponsored by Memphis Democratic Reps. John DeBerry and Joe Towns, both of whom are black, and awaits consideration in a House subcommittee.
According to a legislative analysis, the bill requires written policies by state and local police agencies, including the Tennessee Highway Patrol, 278 local police departments, 95 county sheriff departments and 10 police agencies at 10 public colleges, including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Kelsey said while many already have written policies, language in the bill provides a clear definition of what racial profiling is. Identical to national accrediting standards for police agencies, the bill says racial profiling is "the detention or interdiction of an individual in traffic contacts, field contacts, or asset seizure and or forfeiture efforts solely on the basis of the individual's actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity or natural origin."
Several bills related to the recent deaths, which have triggered a national uproar, have been introduced this year in the Legislature.
Kelsey has another bill which prohibits any law enforcement agency, including university police, from owning or using any military vehicle or military aircraft obtained from the U.S. Department of Defense's 1033 program for law enforcement purposes. It also applies to some weaponry, including machine guns.
Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, has a bill requiring an independent law enforcement agency to investigate any officer-involved death. It makes the investigation report public if a district attorney declines to bring charges against the officer.
Faison calls his bill the "I Can't Breathe Act," a reference to the death of New York City resident Eric Gardner who died last year after police used a chokehold to subdue him.
"Look, we have some amazing law enforcement officers all across Tennessee. Good people," Faison said. "Every team has some bad players, and I hate to think we have some bad players in this state. We might."
It serves departments to have a second set of eyes looking at such situations, he said.
In 2005, the state Comptroller's office released a legislative-directed study on the role of ethnicity in traffic stops by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, The Associated Press reported.
It found troopers were more likely to stop, search and arrest Hispanic drivers than whites or blacks.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.