House vote to keep division with Safety may not mean much

DOS has already started cutting staff at law enforcement agency

By ERIK SCHELZIG, KnoxNews.com
April 27, 2006

NASHVILLE - The House voted Wednesday to ensure that the Department of Safety keeps the Criminal Investigation Division that the governor has tried to transfer to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

But that vote may be largely symbolic because the Safety Department has begun to cut the unit's staffing almost in half.

Safety Commissioner Jerry Nicely said 13 agents have agreed to move to the TBI and 10 more will be transferred to the Department of Revenue. That will leave 23 agents at the whittled-down CID.

The bill, sponsored by House Transportation Chairman Phillip Pinion, originally would have established a minimum number of CID agents, but an amendment to the bill puts the personnel decisions at the discretion of the commissioner.

Pinion, a Union City Democrat, last year halted Gov. Phil Bredesen's attempt to completely transfer the CID out of the Safety Department. Pinion said he changed his legislation at the request of the governor's office.

The House bill passed 96-0, with one abstention.

The top three officials at the Safety Department departed last year in the wake of a series of scandals, including reports of political favoritism, ticket-fixing, troopers with criminal backgrounds and others selling merchandise to the state in violation of purchasing laws.

Bredesen put Nicely, the state's transportation commissioner, in charge of the department temporarily and hired outside consultant Kroll Inc. to recommend changes to deal with the problems.

Senate Transportation Chairman Mark Norris, a Collierville Republican, was among the lawmakers who resisted the move of CID agents to the TBI, not least because TBI records are not subject to state open-records rules.

"We thought that the governor's intention was to move them all to the TBI because what goes to the TBI, stays with the TBI," said Norris. "That's why I made the comment that the governor wants a secret police."

The CID works as an independent law enforcement agency, getting much of its direction directly from the safety commissioner. Its main responsibility is investigating car thefts, including undercover investigations of thefts, odometer fraud, driver's license fraud and insurance fraud.