THP oversight committee has to repeat request for records

By TRENT SEIBERT, Staff Writer for Tennessean.com
December 2, 2005

The Department of Safety is not moving quickly enough in making public information about how Highway Patrol officers get promoted, according to the chairman of the state Senate committee that oversees the THP.

It "has been more than two weeks without a formal response, and none of the information requested has been provided," Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, wrote in a letter dated yesterday to Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips. "We need to hear from you as to when we can expect to receive this information."

Norris, the chairman of the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee, is gearing up for hearings to examine whether politics plays a role in promotions in the Highway Patrol. This is his second letter to Phillips requesting THP employment and promotion data. His first letter was sent Nov. 16.

The legislative inquiry came after a report in The Tennessean last month showing that two-thirds of the THP officers promoted under Gov. Phil Bredesen gave money to his campaign or had family members or political patrons who did. Of those, half were promoted over someone who scored better on impartial exams.

State Safety Department officials have said they are working on a response to the senator's requests.

Norris said he was concerned that some of the records he is seeking might be shredded or concealed by being moved to another agency. He said his fears stemmed from an incident earlier this year when documents concerning workplace harassment by Bredesen appointees were shredded. Bredesen has since ordered that the practice be stopped.

"I certainly don't want any destruction of documents and I want to remind them we don't want them otherwise concealed by having them transferred to another agency," Norris said in an interview yesterday.

Safety Department officials said no documents had been shredded.