Tennessee Legislature Faces Backlash Over Attempts to Undermine Local Governance.
The Tennessee Legislature is considering a bill that would dissolve community-led police oversight boards in Nashville and Memphis and replace them with advisory groups with little power to investigate citizen complaints. The proposed seven-member “police advisory and review committees” would be selected solely by a city’s mayor and would lack investigatory powers. The committees would exist only in cities that opt to establish them. The bill is one of several this year pitting members of the GOP-controlled state Legislature against the state’s biggest and largely Democratic cities, particularly Nashville.