Metropolitan Nashville Police Department

Office of the Chief of Police

to: Amy Hunter

Deputy District Attorney

from: Steve Anderson

Chief of Police

date: May 15, 2017

re: Misstatement of Facts

On May 10, 2017, at 3pm, you participated in a press conference wherein you issued a lengthy
statement criticizing the methodology of a Metropolitan Nashville Police Department report.

Your account was, at best, a misstatement of the facts.

This was especially troubling in that you were, PRIOR to this event, furnished with an
explanation as to why and how this report was compiled.

Prior to this event you were fully briefed as to the terminology utilized in the report and the
reasons that terminology was utilized. You were also furnished the MNPD Report Writing
Manual and the TIBRS (Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System) Manual. The TIBRS
criteria is administered and enforced by the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation). The
MNPD manual mirrors the TBI TIBRS manual. Our agency is not permitted to deviate from the
TIBRS criteria nor are we permitted to create our own classifications or criteria.

Nevertheless, you proceeded to misstate the facts. The most glaring misstatement of fact
occurred when you called attention, and pointed, to Block 11 on the MNPD Incident Report and
stated that only hours after the incident occurred the MNPD had declared the investigation
completed.

First, your statement defies any common sense evaluation. You are well aware that the MNPD
continued this investigation for a number of days after the event.

Second, you are aware, or should be aware, through your day to day duties, that investigations
are almost never completed. There is almost always additional information to gather up to,
and during, a trial.
Third, Block 11 of the MNPD report refers to, and reports the status of, the offense itself. By
TIBRS mandate and definition the term Completed is the appropriate characterization of the
offense itselfnot completion of the investigation.

TIBRS Manual, page 18

OFFENSE STATUS
For each offense within an incident, record whether the crime was attempted (A) or
completed (C). If there was more than one occurrence of the same TIBRS offense
within an incident and only one was completed, then Completed is still reported.
Assault and Homicide Offenses are always reported as Completed for TIBRS.

MNPD Report Writing Manual, page 40

Block 11. Status: Indicate whether each offense was completed or merely attempted. It
should be noted that all Assault Offenses are to be coded as "Completed".

Fourth, in block 127 of this same MNPD report the status of the investigation is clearly listed as
Open. Again, from your day to day duties, you are aware, or should be aware, that an open
investigation is an investigation that continues. That is, an open investigation is an
investigation in which there is more work to be done.

It is unclear why you chose to ignore this portion of the report.

Finally, by TIBRS mandate, the term completed is not a designation that can be utilized to
report the status of an investigation. Only the terms Open, Unfounded, Cleared by Arrest
or Cleared Exceptionally may be utilized.

As an aside, you were very careful to state that you did not fault the detectives for the manner
in which the report was written because this was the manner they had been taught.
Ironically, you were standing in the headquarters of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation,
participating in a joint press conference with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. And, it is
the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that taught, and continues to mandate, the method in
which these investigative reports are written.

Again, you were fully briefed on these issues prior to your press conference. In the event you
did not understand, or did not believe, the origin of this reporting criteria, the following is a brief
account of the laws governing this process.

Title 38, Chapter 10, of the Tennessee Code Annotated, TCA 38-10-101, et seq., is titled
Intrastate Communication of Criminal Statistics. This Chapter states the Legislative mandate
as to how criminal statistics are to be reported and designates the Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation as the entity responsible for overseeing and enforcing these mandates.

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 TCA 38-10-101 states that the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shall
create such a system of reporting.

TCA 38-10-102 requires all Tennessee law enforcement agencies to submit

investigative reports to the TBI and that the TBI shall have the authority to promulgate
rules concerning the manner in which reports are submitted.

TCA 38-10-103 states the duty of the director of the TBI to adopt and promulgate rules
and regulations prescribing the manner and content of these reports and that these
rules shall have the force and effect of law.

TCA 38-10-104 states the annual reporting requirements of the TBI and the information
to be reported.

TCA 38-10-105 requires that all law enforcement officials comply with the above
mandates.

In administering, overseeing and enforcing these mandates, the Tennessee Bureau of

Investigation has created the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS) as the
process for all law enforcement agencies to report investigations. Compliance is mandatory.
To assist law enforcement agencies in this process the TBI regularly holds instructive
conferences where the details of the TIBRS reporting processes are discussed. TBI personnel
make themselves available for consultation on individual matters where a correct term or
classification may be in question.

By legislative enactment the TIBRS reporting processes are administered, overseen and
taught by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Again, you were fully briefed on these issues and furnished copies of the MNPD Report Writing
Manual and the TIBRS Manual PRIOR to the press conference. There seems to be only three
(3) reasons that you would have misstated the facts concerning the MNPD report:

The misstatement of facts was unintentional in that you were unaware of the TIBRS
reporting process.

You deliberately misstated the facts.

The former may be more difficult to believe in that you were provided a briefing prior to the
news conference, these are reports that you examine, I assume, closely in the everyday
course of your business, and, as a trained lawyer, you work within a concept that requires the
careful investigation of the facts prior to making any assertion, especially an assertion of such
magnitude.

In any event, in the four (4) days that have passed, you have made no public effort to correct
your misstatement of the facts. As of now, your failure to acknowledge this misstatement of

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the facts has only affected your credibility. Failure to properly acknowledge your error will
define your integrity and is likely to attract the attention of any governing or oversight body.

For these reasons I urge you to make this acknowledgement in the same manner and fanfare
in which you misstated the facts.

cc: Glenn Funk, District Attorney General

Mark Gwyn, Director, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation