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Thread: I was working a Sunday shift for @memphisnews on May 17 and went to Germantown, a wealthy suburb just outside Memphis, to cover a fatal officer-involved shooting. 1/17
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said local police responded to a domestic disturbance call and ended up shooting a man named Brian Cooper in his own backyard. He was reportedly armed. 2/17
Afterward, we requested more information from the Germantown Police Department, including details on prior calls to the home, the incident report on the shooting, and records related to any suspensions of the three officers who fired shots. 3/17
We also asked for officers’ names. Germantown is not releasing the names. 4/17
The city has also denied our public records requests, citing ongoing investigations and also raising the possibility that the officers themselves were crime victims, and thus entitled to confidentiality under state law. 5/17
This type of response is common in the Memphis area. Police agencies often shield the identities of police officers who have been involved in fatal shootings. 6/17
The local prosecutor’s office often does the same thing. In recent shootings, it has released investigative files that usually include heavy redactions, including of the officers’ identities. Here’s an article I wrote on this in 2018. 7/17 https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/crime/2018/09/27/tennessee-police-shooting-investigations-censored-records/1059657001/
In many cases, it takes months or years for the identities of officers involved in shootings in this area to become known. In some cases, we first see official confirmation of the names when a family member files a civil lawsuit. 8/17
One notable exception to the rule followed the non-fatal shooting of man named Martavious Banks in 2018 that immediately led to protests. In that case, Memphis police released the names relatively quickly. 9/17
Some officers in that case were accused of misusing video recording equipment. Here’s a story I wrote on this with @phillej_ (who’s now at the Baltimore Sun.) 10/17 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2018/09/26/mpd-releases-names-officers-martavious-banks-shooting/1433862002/
A lot of other police shootings don’t lead to protests and fall off the public radar screen very fast. When that happens, it’s usually because no family member comes out to lodge complaints. The recent Germantown shooting appears to fall into that category. 11/17
I spoke with Deborah Fisher, executive director of @TNOpenGovt, a group that lobbies for government transparency. (Our news organization is a member of the group.) She said no one wants to impede a police investigation. 12/17
"However, if releasing the name of the officer does not impede the investigation, the reason it should be released is because when an officer of our government uses lethal force and someone dies, that's a big event for them, and for the community," she said. 13/17
Fisher: "If the name of the officer is withheld, then there can be suspicion in the community that there might be an effort to sort of cover up what happened. And, on the other hand, if the name of the officer is released it just shows, hey, we're being very transparent." 14/17
A few more notes: deaths in custody and police shootings are very much in the news today, often in relation to deaths of African-Americans. In the Germantown case, the man who was shot, Brian Cooper, was white. 15/17
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said Cooper was armed, but hasn’t provided details. Both on the day of the shooting and again yesterday, I asked for more detail on the weapons that were found at the scene. That request was denied, too. 16/17
You can read more about all of this in the article that we posted this morning: 17/17 https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/05/29/germantown-hasnt-released-names-officers-corsica-drive-shooting/5259542002/
