Last year, amid a national outcry for police reform and accountability, Gov. Bill Lee announced “definitive action” in response, including better access for local law enforcement to a little-known national database of decertified officers.
After the Times Free Press reported this past week that a Chattanooga police officer resigned late last year just before being fired for stealing guns from dead residents – and will be recommended for decertification – Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy expressed support for expanding the database.
Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond and other law enforcement leaders also voiced support, though not all support the information being made public.
At the national level, talks about creating such a database grew following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer and the subsequent protests that turned into a national reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice.
But the database – the National Decertification Index – already exists and has been around for two decades. While it’s a free tool that tracks officers who have lost licenses due to misconduct, it has operated on no government funding since 2005 until now, something its director said has contributed to the lack of awareness of its existence.