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Senate committee to investigate new Highway Patrol allegations WWW.WKRN.Com A state Senate committee plans to look into the latest allegations about the Tennessee Highway Patrol. However, its chair wonders if some footdragging is involved with other questions surrounding the THP. First there was a report that 2/3 of troopers receiving promotions during Gov. Phil Bredesen's time as governor had given him campaign donations. Now comes a report in Thursday's Tennesseean that background checks reveal 48 of the state's nearly 1000 troopers have some kind of charges ranging from felonies to suspended driver's licenses. "We'll just try to get to the bottom of it as quickly as we can," said Senate Transportation Committee chair Mark Norris. Norris said that he's moving toward holding hearings about issues inside the THP. "That is, whether there is patronage at the Highway Patrol and particularly if patronage applies to some of these with perhaps checkered pasts," he said. And in a letter sent Thursday to the state Safety Department, the senator wonders why he hasn't received information he's requested from the department. "We have had correspondence with the Department of Safety's lawyer this week, but events seem to be getting ahead of us and I want to make sure that we are first in line," said Norris. The governor has asked the Safety Department to review its promotion policies. That report is expected possibly next week, but now likely will contain answers to background check questions as well. The Tennessean reported the background issue came to light in a memo from THP Col. Lynn Pitts. He asked troopers to expunge any felonies on their record because if anything shows up, they could not access a federal criminal database. "It's a simple process if the person is entitled to it," said Assistant Metro District Attorney Roger Moore. Moore said that criminal expungement gets complex when figuring out the many laws about who's entitled to it. "Cases that have been dismissed that have been bound over grand jury, warrants, cases where person gone to trial and found not guilty," he said. He says some offenses can't be expunged. "Reckless driving, murder - those offenses, once those convictions become final, they stay on your record forever," said Moore. And exactly what the THP background checks showed may soon be answered on several fronts. |
