South Pittsburg police Chief Bobby SimpsonSOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. – Police Chief Robert “Bobby” Simpson has been editing and revising the South Pittsburg Police Department’s operations manual since he was hired in February.
In July, the South Pittsburg City Commission approved Simpson’s requested changes to methods for handling crime scenes, missing persons, and abducted children cases.
At its December meeting, the board voted unanimously for Resolution 962, which adds a policy on biased-based profiling in the Code of Ethics section of the manual.
Simpson said state legislators mandated that policy for all police departments by Jan. 1, 2016.
“I didn’t hear about this until last Thursday at a meeting, so I came home directly and started working on this,” he said.
The profiling policy says officers may not make traffic stops based solely on the basis of race, gender or religion, among other qualifiers.
“They have to have a valid reason to make a stop,” Simpson said.
If a burglary suspect is described as wearing a plaid shirt, for example, and an officer sees someone matching that description, an encounter is allowable.
“That’s a profile, but it’s not a biased-based profile,” Simpson said. “That’s one that there’s reason for.”
City Administrator Sammy Burrows said the board would consider other changes to the manual at its January meeting on handcuffs and restraints, interview room procedures and guidelines for transporting prisoners.
Simpson said South Pittsburg’s manual would be “a constant evolution” and would “constantly shift.”
“We’re going to add things in it,” he said. “We’re going to replace things as we see that it meets our needs, so I’m glad we have it.”
In other business, the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program is set to open for the first time in Marion County in January at the old National Guard Armory building in South Pittsburg.
Site coordinator Bill Aries said the program helps low- to middle-income families complete their income taxes for free.
“This is a very, very beneficial program,” he said. “We need to get the word out. It’s a new program, and it’s going to have to prove itself. The only way to prove it is that people know about it. I think we can help a lot of people.”
Aries said volunteers would be canvasing the county over the next few weeks advertising VITA and providing further information to those who need it.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.