Tag: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

Categories
News News Blog

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture

CREDIT: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation/Twitter

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation/Twitter

Escape fugitive Curtis Watson after his Sunday-morning capture.

In a series of weekend tweets, state agencies presented a pulse-pounding, up-to-the-moment look at the final capture of escaped fugitive Curtis Watson.

Watson’s capture came Sunday after he was spotted on a home surveillance camera in Henning.

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture (2)

Watson was in his sixth year of a 15-year sentence for aggravated assault when he escaped from the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning Wednesday, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC).

West Tennessee Correctional Administrator Debra Johnson was found dead in her residence at the penitentiary shortly before noon on Wednesday. Officials discovered Johnson was missing from his farm-work detail and suspected he played a role in Johnson’s death.

A manhunt for Watson ensued but was fruitless. As of Saturday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said it had received 369 tips on Watson but no credible sightings. The TDOC added $4,500 to a reward for information leading to Watson’s arrest, bringing that reward total too $57,000 on Saturday afternoon.

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture (3)

Early Sunday morning, TDOC posted photos and video from a residential surveillance camera showing Watson in camouflage clothes rummaging through an outdoor refrigerator (below).

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture (4)

”Residents in the area should be ALERT and VIGILANT,” reads the TDOC’s Twitter post Sunday morning.

At 11:23 a.m., a TBI tweet showed a photo of a haggard-looking Watson in the back seat of a police car. The tweet read “Captured!”

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture (6)

Later, TBI posted a video of Watson right after his capture (below).

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture (7)

At 4:33 p.m. Sunday, the TBI tweeted another photo of Watson being walked into a detention facility in Tipton County.

State Agencies (Pretty Much) Live-Tweeted Watson Capture (8)

Categories
News News Blog

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting

CREDIT: Twitter

Twitter

Memphis responded with sadness and outrage to last night’s shooting of 21-year-old Brandon Webber by the United States Marshal Service.

We’ve collected tweets and posts below. But first, here’s the official word from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

“At the request of 30th District Attorney General Amy Weirich, TBI Agents are investigating the circumstances surrounding an officer-involved shooting that occurred in the Frayser Community of Memphis Wednesday evening.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting

Preliminary information indicates that at approximately 7 p.m., multiple officers with the United States Marshals Service – Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force encountered a male, wanted on multiple warrants, outside of a home in the 2700 block of Durham Street as he was getting into a vehicle. While attempting to stop the individual, he reportedly rammed his vehicle into the officers’ vehicles multiple times before exiting with a weapon. The officers fired striking and killing the individual. No officers were injured.

This remains an active and ongoing investigation, as TBI Special Agents and forensic scientists continue to work to gather any and all relevant interviews and evidence. As in any case, TBI’s investigative findings will be shared with the District Attorney General throughout the process for her review.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (2)

As is our policy, the TBI does not identify the officers involved in these types of incidents and instead refers questions of that nature to their respective department.

Any updates on this investigation will be posted online at TBINewsroom.com.”

Memphis Police Department (MPD) responded to help the Marshals Service and assist with traffic control.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (4)

Various news reports said some 300 showed up at the scene. It all made national news.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (5)

The local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said it was watching the situation.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (3)

Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer asked the NAACP to choose words carefully.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (11)

At least one disagreed with Sawyer.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (10)

Plenty of people disagreed with that, too.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (21)

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (23)

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (20)

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (7)

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (22)

Some braced for what could be coming next.

‘Say His Name #BrandonWebber:’ Memphis Responds to Officer-Involved Shooting (19)

Twitter

Categories
Editorial Opinion

TBI Director Gwyn Briefs Memphis Rotary

Among the most intriguing revelations made to members of the Rotary Club of Memphis on Tuesday by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director Mark Gwyn was that
the T.B.I., the Volunteer State’s equivalent of the F.B.I., originated in a newsman’s imagination.

TBI Director Mark Gwyn

This was John M. Jones, the longtime publisher of the East Tennessee Greeneville Sun, who, while covering a murder at some point in the 1950s, became so incensed at the way local police had mucked up the site of the crime (“contamination of evidence,” we call that these days) that he lobbied then Governor Frank Clement for a state-run professional investigative agency. Clement in turn went to work on F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover, who gave the idea his blessing, and — voila! — the T.B.I. came to be.

In those days, the agency had but three employees — one for each of the state’s Grand Divisions — but when then Governor (later prison inmate) Ray Blanton began being accused of crimes of his own in the late ’70s (selling gubernatorial pardons and liquor licenses) and siphoning off agency records, the climate was right for the next Governor, Lamar Alexander, to oversee the expansion of the T.B.I. to its present dimensions as a fully staffed and independent investigative unit, with criminal and forensic divisions of various kinds, all armed with up-to-date technology.

And, as Gwyn explained to his luncheon audience at the University Club, the agency’s directors are appointed to six-year terms in cycles designed to make them independent of specific gubernatorial regimes. (Gwyn himself, originally appointed by former Governor Phil Bredesen, is now in his third term.)

The director addressed three areas of principal concern for the T.B.I — drug trafficking, human trafficking, and cyber crime — all, as he maintained, currently on the rise.

Gwyn claimed credit for a crackdown on methamphetamine production in the state that has reduced the number of meth cases from well into the thousands down to a few hundred. He said the newest specter in Tennessee is heroin and, beyond that, in street doses of heroin cut, in potentially lethal proportions, with the painkiller Fentanyl. (Tennessee has for many years ranked first or second among the states in opioid addiction.)

As for human trafficking, the T.B.I. — commendably — has a policy of regarding young women entrapped into sexual servitude more as victims rather than as criminals, and the agency’s investigative efforts are focused on pimps and customers.

Gwyn came off more as a traditionalist than as an idealist, however, and he got a bit of audience reaction to his statement that he still regards marijuana as a gateway drug as well as to his questioning of legal protections currently enjoyed by users and manufacturers of cell phones — as in the famous Apple case involving the contents of an accused terrorist’s iPhone.

 Those are both cutting-line issues, and how they’ll be resolved is still to be determined. But we appreciate Gwyn’s candor and willingness to discuss these points publicly, as he did on Tuesday.

Categories
News News Blog

TBI Will Investigate Latest Officer-Involved Shooting

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) will be handling the case of Wednesday night’s officer-involved shooting of a man following a police chase. The man, who Memphis Police officers say aimed a weapon at them, was killed, and another man is on the run. 

Last October, the Memphis Police Department (MPD), the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and the Shelby County District Attorney’s office signed a memorandum of understanding with the TBI to allow the state agency to investigate officer-involved shootings. That agreement came after Memphis Police officer Conner Schilling shot and killed Darrius Stewart, who was unarmed, during a traffic stop last year. Under state law, all TBI investigations are sealed.

On Wednesday evening, two MPD officers shot and killed a man whom friends and family have identified as 32-year-old Johnathan Bratcher. The TBI has not yet released the man’s identity. Around 3 p.m. yesterday, two police vehicles tried to pull over a man driving a Chevy Impala near Trezevant and Lowell. But the driver did not stop, and police pursued the car in the direction of South Parkway and Mississippi Boulevard. At that intersection, the Impala crashed into other cars and then ran over a curb at St. Andrew A.M.E. Church. The driver and passenger jumped out of the car and attempted to run away.

The two Memphis police officers, who have not been identified, and an unidentified Shelby County Sheriff’s officer tried to chase then men. That’s when one of the men allegedly pointed a gun at the officers and was then shot and killed by police. The other man remains at large as of Thursday morning. One of the Memphis Police officers was white and the other black. The man who was shot was black.

Mayor Jim Strickland’s office released the following statement Wednesday afternoon: “I have been made aware of an officer-involved shooting today. However, TBI is the lead agency investigating. I am not at liberty to discuss the details of this case. This is a reminder of the dangers our officers face on a daily basis, even on something as routine as a traffic stop.”

Categories
News News Blog

Police-Involved Deaths To Be Investigated By TBI

Any death of a suspect or detainee involving the Memphis Police Department (MPD) or Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) will be investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), according to an agreement signed by the MPD, SCSO, and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich.

The TBI will be charged with investigating such situations, but the agency will not make recommendations or draw legal conclusions, according to the agreement. Instead, those findings will be sent to Weirich’s office for review.

“We believe this method will increase the level of public confidence in such investigations and, quite frankly, it will relieve the police and sheriff’s officers of a most-difficult task, that is, of investigating circumstances involving one of their own,” Weirich said. “We all hope this procedure will never be necessary, but it is now in place and will be the rule going forward.”

Upon the occurrence of such a death, according to the agreement, the police department or sheriff’s office shall:

* immediately notify the TBI and DA’s office

* secure a crime scene perimeter with access limited to emergency medical personnel, medical examiner personnel and TBI personnel 

* detain and hold any arrested persons pending the arrival of TBI personnel

* identify and separate all eye witnesses for subsequent interview by TBI 

The agreement also outlines TBI responsibilities, including:

* initiating an investigation in accordance with state law and TBI policy

* dispatching of any TBI personnel necessary for proper conduct of such an investigation

* issuing investigative reports and summaries to the DA’s as appropriate in the investigative process 

* submitting final reports to the DA’s office for review without an opinion on whether the force used, if any, was justified.

The July 17th police-involved shooting of Darrius Stewart was investigated by the TBI, and the agency has wrapped up the investigation and forwarded its findings to Weirich, but she hasn’t yet made a decision on the case.

In that case, Stewart was shot and killed by Memphis Police Officer Conor Schilling after the car Stewart was a passenger in was pulled over for having a headlight out. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at the Regional Medical Center.

Categories
News News Blog

NAACP Expresses Support for TBI Investigating Police Shooting

Darrius Stewart

In a press conference at First Baptist-Broad on Wednesday morning, Keith Norman, president of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP, said the organization supports the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) looking into the police shooting death of Darrius Stewart.

Norman said the organization helped state Representative G.A. Hardaway in crafting a bill to mandate that all police-involved shootings in the state be investigated by the TBI rather than by police departments in their own jurisdictions.

“No local body should should do an investigation of a police shooting. An independent body should investigate,” Norman said. 

On Monday, the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirch announced that Stewart’s Friday night shooting death by Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling would be investigated by the TBI rather than by the MPD. The decision has been criticized by some because TBI files are sealed from the public. Many are calling for more transparency in the investigation.

Norman said he supported that transparency, and he urged citizens to push for a change in the law that would require TBI documents to be made public.

“I would encourage all citizens to get involved in petitioning for a change in the law so that findings could be made public,” Norman said.

Norman said the NAACP will also be looking into protocol for dealing with passengers in cars during traffic stops. Stewart was riding in a car that was pulled over for having a headlight out. 

Norman said that people should remain calm while the investigation is underway. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car during the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at The Med. Some have questioned whether or not the police should have even been checking on warrants for a passenger.

“We have questions about what are the rights of a passenger under the rule of law during a mere traffic violation,” Norman said. “Should officers have the right to question everyone in the car? This can lead to inappropriate contact with citizens who have not committed a crime.”

Categories
News News Blog

U of M Has Lowest Crime Rate of Large Schools in Tennessee

New Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) data reveals that the University of Memphis (U of M) has the lowest crime rate of state schools boasting more than 5,000 students.

According to the TBI’s 2014 “Crime on Campus” report, the U of M had an incident rate of 14.6 offenses per 1,000 people. However, the average for Tennessee’s 10 largest institutions was 24.7 incidents per 1,000 people.

East Tennessee State University is the only other large institution that had a crime rate lower than 20 offenses per 1,000 people.

This the second consecutive year the U of M has had the lowest crime rate of the state’s largest colleges and universities.

Larceny/theft was the most common offense committed on U of M’s campus. According to the TBI’s report, there were 160 occurrences of larceny/theft last year. Only 13 people accused of committing an offense within the category were cleared of their alleged illegal act.

Shoplifting, pocket-picking, and theft of building, motor vehicle, or motor vehicle parts are all offenses categorized as larceny/theft in the report.

U of M isn’t the only school impacted by larceny/theft. Thirty-two percent of all 2014 offenses reported by Tennessee colleges and universities were categorized as larceny/theft. 

Crime reported by Tennessee colleges and universities collectively decreased by 6.3 percent in 2014. There were 6,329 offenses reported last year. But in 2013, there were 6,752 offenses reported.

The Crime on Campus report was compiled using data submitted to TBI’s Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS) program.

Categories
News The Fly-By

New Study Shows Efforts to Reduce DUI Recidivism Don’t Work

CREDIT: Jiri Hera | Dreamstime.com

Charges of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) by repeat offenders are increasing in Tennessee, despite new laws and educational efforts to reduce recidivism, according to a new report.

Two laws that went into effect in July intensified the punishment for driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The DUI Recidivism Reduction Act mandates jail or prison time for second- and third-time DUI offenders in Tennessee. And Amelia’s Law, named for Maryville, Tennessee, car accident victim Amelia Keown, permits an offender to be monitored with a “transdermal monitoring device” if it’s determined that alcohol or drugs was a contributing factor to past unlawful conduct.

Jiri Hera | Dreamstime.com

In January 2011, all DUI schools across the state began using a curriculum mandated by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) to lessen DUI recidivism. The Kentucky-based alcohol and drug prevention, intervention, and pre-treatment program “Prime For Life” was selected as the standardized curriculum for the DUI schools to utilize.

However, “Tennessee’s DUI Problem: Increasing Recidivism,” a new report by psychologist and veteran researcher Greg Little, provides data that asserts the decision to implement the curriculum hasn’t been successful in curbing DUIs.

“[DUIs] have come on up to a level that’s actually pretty astounding,” Little said. “It just makes no sense.”

Little’s report claims DUI arrests, following Prime For Life’s implementation, have increased statewide. In 2011, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) data, DUI arrests increased nearly 12 percent to 26,197 from its 2010 total of 23,460. And in 2012, there were 28,931 DUI arrests — a 23 percent increase since 2010.

According to the state’s Division of Substance Abuse Services, the Prime For Life curriculum is intended to minimize the occurrences of drug- and alcohol-related incidents in Tennessee. It utilizes brain chemistry and addiction research to decrease dependency.

The curriculum identifies two phases of drinking: low-risk and high-risk. A person who consumes two or three drinks in a day is defined as a low-risk drinker. Individuals categorized as high-risk consume more than three drinks a day.

Kenny Baker is program director for Behavioral Treatment Providers, which specializes in providing treatment and intervention to various offenders including those arrested for DUIs. Baker said he opposed the decision to make Prime For Life the state’s mandatory DUI school curriculum.

“Our approach has always been ‘if you choose to drink, don’t get behind the wheel of a car and drive,'” Baker said. “With the standardized curriculum, I don’t think DUI offenders care about low-risk versus high-risk drinking and what it does. I don’t think it’s useful for them to run calculations in their head. But the new curriculum really focuses on that.”

In 2009, a TBI report revealed that 21 percent of the people arrested for DUIs in Tennessee were repeat offenders. A year later, the decision was made to implement a standardized curriculum statewide to limit DUI recidivism. Little’s report, however, states that the number of DUI repeat offenders had increased to 25 percent by mid-2012.

Little said he hopes his report motivates the state to release a recidivism study that showcases the outcomes of DUI offenders who’ve accessed the Prime For Life program.

“The actual overall recidivism rate for Tennessee DUI offenders hasn’t been released since 2009,” Little stated in the report. “And that is an essential problem. With reduced recidivism as the stated goal of a mandated statewide program, evaluating the recidivism of treated DUI offenders would seem to be the ethical and correct course of action.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Same-Sex Domestic Violence Numbers Are Up in Tennessee

Overall domestic violence numbers dropped by four percent in Tennessee since 2008, according to the latest Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) numbers. But for same-sex couples, those numbers actually saw a 44 percent increase since then.

That may not actually reflect an increase in incidents but rather an increase in reporting due to changing attitudes by the general public about homosexuality, said Phillis Lewis, a witness coordinator for the Shelby County District Attorney’s office’s domestic violence unit.

“I think people have become more comfortable reporting,” Lewis said. “I think before people were afraid of letting officers know their status and that [the perpetrator] is their significant other.”

In 2012, Lewis started the “Love Doesn’t Hurt” fund, which provides emergency funding to same-sex domestic violence victims. The money can be used to help victims with anything from housing and relocation to food and gas.

“In the first case we dealt with, the person had completely left the home and needed somewhere to go,” Lewis said. “We housed that person in a hotel for a week, and then they decided they wanted to leave Memphis. So we helped that person get out of town. We want them safe from violence. The last thing we need is another homicide.”

They also collect hygiene products to hand out to victims.

“When you’re running from your wife, you’re not going to think about grabbing some deodorant,” Lewis said.

When she started the fund two years ago, Lewis had begun noticing an increase in reported cases. But she said there was nowhere she felt comfortable sending LGBT victims for help.

“A lot of the agencies [that deal with domestic violence] are faith-based, and I sent one client to a place where, instead of focusing on the trauma she’d been through, they were focusing on her sexual orientation,” Lewis said.

Enter the Family Safety Center of Memphis and Shelby County. The one-stop shop for domestic violence victims opened in 2012, and various agencies that assist victims, such as the Shelby County Crime Victims Center and the Mid-South Sexual Assault Resource Center, are now located in one building on Madison.

The center’s executive director Oliette Drobot-Murry said she has worked to make sure the Family Safety Center is LGBT-friendly. Her staff has trained with the Tennessee Equality Project, and they partner with the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) and HIV/AIDS nonprofit, the Red Door Foundation.

“We go to [Mid-South] Pride, and we sponsor Red Door events. And now through word of mouth, we’ve had more LGBT folks coming through here,” Drobot-Murry said.

The Family Safety Center is now in charge of doling out money from the “Love Doesn’t Hurt” fund on a case-by-case basis to same-sex victims who file reports there. Although the fund is primarily raised at an annual benefit each March, Lewis said anyone can donate to the fund at any time by sending a check to the Family Safety Center and specifying that the donation should go into the “Love Doesn’t Hurt” fund.

To help prevent same-sex domestic violence, the MGLCC hosts a twice-monthly support group called Cultivating Priorities in Relationships to help people identify toxic relationships.

“I thought we should call it something other than a support group for victims because that scares people,” said Martavius Hampton, MGLCC’s HIV Services Manager. “We promote it as a healthy relationship group, so it’s like prevention rather than waiting on something to happen. We talk about what’s a positive partner and what’s abusive and controlling.”

Categories
News

DA Gibbons Announces No Charges in “Nappi By Nature” Investigation

Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Friday that the criminal charges against five individuals involved in a May incident with three Memphis police officers outside a south Memphis business (Nappi By Nature) have been dismissed.

Additionally, the District Attorney announced there would be no state charges filed against police officers on the basis of an investigation conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation requested by the D.A.

“Simply put, we are dismissing the cases because we do not believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any of the defendants committed the offenses in question,” D.A. Gibbons said.

The TBI’s investigation into the actions of the police officers on the scene of the incident is now closed. There will be no state prosecution of any police officers based upon the TBI’s investigation,” Gibbons added.

In August, Gibbons had asked the TBI to conduct an official investigation into whether three officers, Michael McCord, Billy Gray, and Steven Grigsby, violated any state laws when they arrested the five defendants on May 30 outside Nappi by Nature, located at 1391 Elvis Presley Boulevard. Under Tennessee law, investigations conducted by the TBI are sealed and not public records.