Tennessee Voices, Episode 364: Alisha Haddock and Jill Fitcheard, Community Oversight Board
Earlier this year, Tyre Nichols was allegedly beaten by Memphis police officers and died just a few days later.
On July 27, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it opened a civil rights investigation into the City of Memphis over the Nichols' death.
The Nichols case came up in my discussion later that day with Alisha Smith Haddock and Jill Fitcheard, chair and executive director, respectively, of the Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board.
We had scheduled to record this conversation on the Tennessee Voices video podcast to talk about the oversight board, its recent report findings on over-policing and use of force against non-white residents, and a new law that effectively defangs the board in its role of holding Metro Nashville Police Department to account.
"It's not a secret that we need less oversight; we need more oversight," they said.
Sixty percent of voters agreed to amend Metro Nashville's charter to create the oversight board in 2018.
The board had subpoena power and could look into ongoing investigations, but now leaders fear it will simply become a complaint taker.
Both Haddock and Fitcheard think those complaints will now increase.
They emphasized that they are not looking to go after good cops, but rather after those who are outliers and cause harm to citizens.
Haddock works in the affordable housing sector and Fitcheard has worked her entire career in criminal from being a police officer to working for the Davidson County Public Defender's office.
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The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063 or email him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Video podcast: Alisha Haddock and Jill Fitcheard, MNCO
