Your Daily Briefing: What's next after Nashville's police oversight board disbands?

Nashville Tennessean
·1 min read

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Hello readers of Nashville and beyond. It's 1/3 of your Tennessean breaking news team, Diana Leyva.

Last month, Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill which strips investigatory power from community oversight boards in Tennessee. The boards were created to act as community watchdogs over the police department. Whenever someone felt they were mistreated or discriminated against, they could file complaints with the board which would prompt investigations.

Nashville's board was created shortly after the July 2018 fatal shooting of Daniel Hambrick, a Black man by White police officer, Andrew Delke. The board was strongly supported by voters, which has caused many in the community to call the bill an attack on democracy.

Nashville's Community Oversight Board meets for the first time at the Metro courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019.
Nashville's Community Oversight Board meets for the first time at the Metro courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019.

So what happens now?

The board has 120 days from July 1 to re-structure, which ultimately means providing oversight after the fact. The board now also is in a time crunch to try and process all open cases before that date. The biggest hurdle however, according to board members, will be trying to validate citizen concerns while still trying to enact change within the police department.

Check out the story here.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Daily Briefing: What's next after police oversight board disbands?