DA Asks Court to Order MNPD's Cooperation With 'Steering Clear' Program (Updated)

In a new court filing, Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk says the Metro Nashville Police Department is effectively working against the Steering Clear diversion program by keeping records of recalled driver's license citations in a public database. Now Funk wants a judge to tell Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson to cut it out. 

Sources in the city's criminal justice sphere have long identified Anderson as an obstacle to reform efforts and to the Steering Clear program in particular. The goal of the program is to divert people who are cited for driving on a revoked driver's license — often because they were not able to pay fines, court costs or reinstatement fees — away from the court system and into a process that will help them get their license back. The filing in General Sessions Court from the DA's office says that more than 5,000 such cases have been diverted through the program since Sept. 4, 2018.

"This has benefited individuals by not subjecting them to court appearances, fines, costs and possible incarceration," Funk writes in his petition for a court order. "Over 1,000 driver licenses have been reinstated. Additionally and in some ways even more importantly, an arrest record can cost a person a job or housing. Even cases which are later expunged often appear when employers, banks or landlords run record checks."

That, Funk writes, is why MNPD's handling of these cases is a problem. Even after the cases described above — cases that have gone through multiple screenings to ensure that the person involved was not cited for a traffic accident or DUI and that they do not have outstanding warrants — have been "recalled" (so they don't become an official arrest), the MNPD is maintaining the record of the initial citation in a public database. 

"This policy is improper given that the citations have been withdrawn," Funk writes. "Continuing to publish these records can cause harm to the individuals who have gone through Steering Clear."

According to the filing, the powers that be in Nashville's criminal justice system — presiding General Sessions Judge Melissa Blackburn, Criminal Court Clerk Howard Gentry, Metro Public Defender Martesha Johnson, a representative from Sheriff Daron Hall's office and Funk — met with Mayor David Briley and Anderson to discuss the impasse. At that meeting, Funk writes, "Chief Anderson insisted on maintaining a public record of withdrawn cases, claiming that he did not know of any authority under which to remove these records from public access."

When the mayor suggested a court order, according to Funk's filing, Anderson "stated that he would not agree to follow this order and would maintain these records on a public database."

The filing goes on to explain that the aforementioned criminal justice leaders requested an opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General's office on the matter and later had a meeting with the AG's office. After that meeting, Funk writes in the filing, the group continued to agree that MNPD should not make citations public if they have not been approved by a judge (as in the case of those handled through the Steering Clear program). According to the filing, Anderson responded with an email to Funk:

Thank you for your continued attention to this matter. We have reviewed your proposal with an effort to reach a solution. However, we are not seeing a course of action that would lead to the desired result. Simply stated, when an officer makes an arrest or issues a citation, that action must be documented. Once documented, absent a statutory provision excluding the documentation or record from the public view, that documentation or record is a public record. We do not have the authority to decide which records are public and which records are not available to the public. We will await the opinion from the Attorney General to see if there is anything we have missed. 

In closing, Funk bluntly disputes Anderson's statement. 

"In fact, MNPD does maintain nonpublic data bases," Funk writes. "Given this fact and Chief Anderson's continued defiance of the elected stakeholders, no other option remains but to request this Court issue an Order directing MNPD to not publicly post any citation records or charging applications unless and until those charges have been approved by a Judge."

Reached for comment, the sheriff's office responded with this statement from Hall:

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office will continue to support and push for criminal justice reform programs such as Steering Clear. This effort seeks to assist those who may be economically disadvantaged avoid costly fines and stay out of jail by providing alternatives to driver license citations. I am extremely proud of Steering Clear and our employees who have assisted more than 1,000 Nashvillians in getting their driver licenses reinstated. As criminal justice leaders, we should continue to develop programs that ensure equity and reduce the likelihood of incarceration.

Update: MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron sent a long a statement Thursday afternoon:

The MNPD unequivocally supports the concept of Steering Clear. The issue at hand is whether the police department has the statutory authority to make confidential or otherwise delete issued misdemeanor arrest citations which have been simply 'withdrawn.' We do not know of any statute at present that exempts such citations from being a public record, unlike an arrest which has been ordered expunged by a judge. The expungement statute provides for confidentiality.

Update II (8/9): Briley weighs in with a statement through a spokesperson:

Reinstating your driver’s license shouldn’t be a criminal case.

The Steering Clear program is good for Nashville and offers relief to our judicial system by handling driver’s license restoration outside of the courts, freeing up resources for more serious cases.

I have been working to make sure this program is successful since its inception and directed Metro Legal to draft legislation to fix the issue. The DA’s filing relates to addressing parts of the law that prevent MNPD from being able to change their records. I support changing the law to make for a smoother and more comprehensive process.

And on Twitter, newly re-elected At-Large Metro Councilmember Bob Mendes renews his call for the chief's ouster:

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