A Republican lawmaker said during a public hearing this week that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing the conduct of current and former employees of the Department of Children’s Services — an investigation a TBI spokeswoman later said she could neither confirm nor deny.
“I’ve been made aware of a specific instance where the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has gotten involved in an internal investigation of DCS employees and former DCS employees,” Rep. David Hawk, R-Greenville, said Monday during the legislative Finance, Ways and Means Committee hearing.
The hearing was to review an emergency request for funding from the agency, which has been under fire for more than a year over its inability to adequately care for the abused or neglected children that come into state custody.
The committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, prevented Hawk from asking additional questions, noting the hearing was confined to the emergency budgetary request.
A TBI spokeswoman, in response to questions about Hawk’s public statements, said the agency was taking the rare step of neither confirming nor denying the existence of any investigation.